New life assurance product for domestic workers

SIMPLY Financial Services (Simply) has introduced a life assurance product for households that want to offer their domestic workers life and disability cover.

The product, called Domestic Cover, comprises life, disability and funeral cover.

Until recently, there haven’t been many life assurance options for the average domestic worker, with most products limited to funeral cover. As a result of the financial challenges many workers face, they often struggle to keep up with the premium payments, so in many cases their cover lapses and isn’t in place when it’s needed.

Simply says that Domestic Cover can be customised to suit a person’s needs and budget. The policies are underwritten by Old Mutual Alternative Risk Transfer, an insurer in the Old Mutual group.

“Simply’s aim is to provide a significant new level of financial security to people in this segment,” says Anthony Miller, the chief executive of Simply Financial Services.

Miller says Domestic Cover delivers “great value”. For example, a 30-year-old woman earning R4 500 a month gets R100 000 life cover,

R150 000 disability cover and R15 000 family funeral cover (which covers the insured person, the spouse and up to five children) for R92 a month.

By putting the responsibility for paying the premium on the employer, the risk of cover being cancelled because of non-payment is greatly reduced, so the cover will be there when it is needed.

If the domestic worker changes employer, he or she can take over the premium payments on the same terms, or ask the new employer to take over the policy, Miller says.

You sign up online. The process “takes less than 10 minutes” and requires you to fill in some personal details and answer three healthrelated questions. – Staff Reporter