Take cover – and stay protected during parental leave
25 July 2023
5
min read
Taking parental leave may impact your insurance with us.
You may hold three types of insurance through your super:
- Death cover
- Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) cover
- Income Protection (IP) cover
Taking parental leave does not affect your Death cover and TPD cover. But if you hold Income Protection cover with us, you might want to check how parental leave may impact this cover. Our insurance team explains:
If I have QSuper insurance cover, am I still covered when I take parental leave?
The first thing to do is make sure your cover doesn’t turn off when you’re on parental leave. If you don’t make any contributions for 13 months your cover will be turned off. To stop this happening, you can opt in to your insurance.
If you opt in to your cover, Death cover and TPD cover are not affected by taking parental leave. If you hold Income Protection with us, the cover might be affected.
Paid leave: When you take either annual, long service or employer-funded parental leave, you will continue to be paid and receive your Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions. During this time, your insurance doesn’t change and all premiums are deducted as usual.
Leave without pay: Once you’ve exhausted all your employer-funded paid leave, you can choose to return to work or take leave without pay. If you have a salary-based Income Protection policy and three months pass with no employer superannuation contributions, you’ll be automatically switched to what we call unitised IP. This means that we can see there’s no money going into the account, so we base your cover on your most recent salary.
If you go on leave without pay, your ability to claim an income protection benefit will continue, provided:
- your leave without pay does not exceed 12 months
- you have a documented return to work date
- you have enough in your Accumulation account balance to deduct premiums from.
What happens if I’m on the federal government’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme?
This is classified as unpaid leave as employers aren’t required to make superannuation contributions.
I’ve extended my parental leave beyond 12 months, what does this mean for my insurance?
Income Protection insurance is designed to protect income, so if you’re on extended leave without pay there’s no income to protect. When you return to work, you can apply to return to default cover if you hold Income Protection cover with us.
If you prefer to ensure that your Income Protection cover continues while you’re on leave, you can choose to either:
- permanently opt in to cover
- make a voluntary contribution.
What happens to my Death and TPD cover while I’m on parental leave?
Your Death cover and TPD cover still apply. Premiums will be deducted as usual because you can still make a claim on them at any time. There are some different conditions you need to meet if you make a claim for a TPD benefit as it will cover home duties rather than a workplace.
In that case, is it worth continuing my Income Protection cover during parental leave?
You might want to consider continuing your Income Protection cover if you are taking leave without pay for up to 12 months. Our Insurance Needs Calculator is a useful resource to help you determine what cover you need.
What happens if I need to make an insurance claim while I’m on parental leave?
Claims for TPD benefits can be made at any time, provided premiums are paid up to date. If you make a successful Income Protection claim during parental leave, the benefit won’t start until the date you are due to return to work. This is because you’ve chosen to take leave without pay and income protection exists to pay a benefit because you can’t work as scheduled. This is one reason why it’s important to document a return date with your employer before you take leave.
You can check the insurance cover you currently hold with us via Member Online.