New figures show the HR Benefits of Group Income Protection

20 August 2012

New figures released by Legal & General show the HR benefits of Group Income Protection. Last year Workplace Recovery, Legal & General’s Group Income Protection product, paid out £32 million in claims, £2.4 million in rehabilitation costs, and 70% of claimants were able to get back to work within the deferred period (the time between the date of first absence and the date we start paying benefit).

Group IP aims to provide insurance to pay income protection benefit to employees who can't work because of long-term sickness or injury. When appropriate, we’ll provide early intervention and rehabilitation for employees who are absent from work because of long-term illness or injury. Benefit will only be paid if the employee meets the specific definition of long-term illness or injury and has completed the deferred period. Legal & General’s product can be purchased by companies directly or through an adviser.

A breakdown of Legal & General’s claims figures shows that its Group Income Protection has:

• Paid £32.3 million in Group Income Protection benefit in 2011.
• Declined only 2.2% of Group Income Protection benefit claims in 2011.
• Of the notifications received during 2010, 72.4% were able to return to work within the deferred period.

Early notification enables Legal & General to provide specialist treatment and support to help the individual back to work. Legal & General is the only company to incentivise employers that notify long term absences (those over four weeks) by the sixth week of absence. Since 2006, over £1.5 million has been paid back to companies as a reward for simply notifying absences early.

Legal & General has built up a team of specialist partners to help get people back to work. For example, employees who are absent from work because of stress can be offered up to 24 sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) from CBT Services Limited. Over 66% of such employees were able to return to work within 12 months of the date that they were first absent.

Diane Buckley, Legal & General, Group Protection Managing Director said:

“Group Income Protection offers real benefits to HR Professionals. These figures demonstrate Legal & General’s commitment to helping reduce absence rates, delivering specialist back to work support and providing income replacement. Our aim is to provide benefits to as many people as possible, and the latest figures show that we made excellent progress during 2011 towards achieving this. Keeping claims transparent will further aid our efforts to maintain and indeed boost these success rates.”