Pressure on insurers to compensate businesses over virus
IT’S great to see how the nation has pulled together in the Covid-19 crisis. Even banks have received kudos for taking steps such as granting threemonth mortgage payment deferrals to those impacted.
But a growing number of firms are complaining about the approach of insurance companies.
Brokers Ireland has called on the government to meet with insurance bosses – as they did with bankers – to discuss claims for ‘business interruption’ caused by the pandemic.
While many businesses will have Business Interruption insurance, the wording on policies can vary, said Cathie Shannon, Director of General Insurance at the organisation, which represents 1,250 broker firms.
She called on insurance companies to be flexible particularly in relation to coverage for business costs and losses arising from the virus and to explore options for ensuring that their clients do not go out of business permanently as a result of being forced to close.
‘Businesses are being responsible in doing the right thing to protect consumers and staff,’ she said. WORKERS who had too much of their pension invested in shares may have to postpone their retirement, the Galway-born boss of savings giant Royal London has warned. The catastrophic rout on shares caused by the coronavirus could mean some people approaching retirement age no longer have enough money left to live off, said Barry O’Dwyer, chief executive of Britain’s largest mutual insurer, which also has substantial business in Ireland.
Most default pension plans start to shift investors’ money out of risky equities into safer assets such as bonds, as they approach retirement age.
This means that if a stock market crash occurs a few years before they retire, their money should still be preserved.
Anyone who invests their own pension savings and received financial advice should have been given similar instructions, said the pensions boss. But there will still be many people who may have switched to a riskier plan, or who may have ploughed their pension savings into the stock market in the hope of a better return, he warned.
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TRAVEL insurers are no longer selling policies covering claims related to the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s understandable in the current crisis.
But at least one UK company said it wouldn’t cover coronavirus-related claims on multi-trip policies purchased before it pulled the plug on covering the pandemic.
These policies last for a year or two and buyers would assume the terms of their contract shouldn’t change over that period going forward.
I asked Ireland’s biggest holiday insurer to clarify the position for Irish customers.
Blue insurance boss Ciaran Mulligan said only new policies issued from March 17 onwards are affected by the coronavirus ban.
If you bought multi-trip cover before then it should keep you covered against corona virus related claims for the period of the policy.
And so savvy readers who followed our advice and bought annual multi-trip policies before the crackdown on March 17 will not be affected.
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HEARING healthcare specialists, Hidden Hearing, are posting out free replacement batteries for hearing aids to all applicants, whether or not they
are customers of the Irish company. While local Hidden Hearing clinics currently remain open to cater for urgent customer appointments and enquiries, the hearing specialists are aware that some more vulnerable clients may not wish to visit clinics in person.
So, anyone needing hearing aid batteries, whether customers, nursing home or hospital residents, or the general public can contact Hidden Hearing on 1800
370000, text ‘Hear’ to 50015, or emailinfo@hiddenhearing.ie to have free replacement batteries posted free of charge.
‘People have enough stress right now, without having to worry about hearing aids batteries running down,’ says Dolores Madden, marketing director at Hidden Hearing Ireland.
‘Our audiologists are now supporting many customers’ online and via telephone enquiries, so issuing free replacement batteries for hearing devices to anyone in need makes sense.’
Families are asked to check that relatives’ hearing aids are in good order at this challenging time when TVs, radios and telephone calls are a lifeline for many.
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PEOPLE working from home can be reimbursed for their expenses by employers taxfree. Yet most of them don’t yet know this benefit exists.
Even before the coronavirus crisis, over 100,000+ people worked from home and Revenue has made provisions for these people to be reimbursed for work-related expenses, explained Joanna Murphy, CEO of Taxback.com.
‘This is a benefit that is already heavily underutilised. But now more than ever people are going to need all the financial support they can get for extra expenses.’
Working from home, people will incur extra costs they might not consider.
‘The obvious ones are heating, electricity and perhaps broadband expenses.
‘From a tax perspective, an employer can pay €3.20 a day to their employee to cover these additional costs,’ Ms Murphy said.