Protecting your income

'Income Protection' is only applicable to PSSap members. For more information on Insurance and Cover for other schemes please see here.

lifePLUS is designed to give you protection when the unexpected happens. Getting injured or sick is the last thing you want, especially when there are expenses and bills to pay.

With CSC, you can guard against the worst with two Income Protection options—lifePLUS auto, our default cover, or lifePLUS choice, insurance you can change to better suit your needs.

Key insurance points

lifePLUS auto—our default cover

New PSSap customers who meet the eligibility criteria are generally covered from day one with lifePLUS auto. As a new PSSap customer, you receive lifePLUS auto cover automatically, subject to age-based and account-balance conditions, so you can get on with the things that matter to you.

lifePLUS auto Income Protection gives eligible customers more cover when they’re more likely to need it, and less when they’re less likely to need it. It’s based on three age groups: 14y 9m -34 | 35 -54 | 55+.

If you're eligible, lifePLUS auto cover includes:

• Income Protection for permanent and casual employees for up to two or five years depending on your age group.
• Income Protection for employees on contract for up to two or five years depending on your age group, or to the contract end date, whichever happens first, and
• maximum cover of $15,000 per month without having to go through a full insurance application process.

lifePLUS choice—take your pick

Everyone's different—from the work they do, to the situations they find themselves in—which is why we’ve made lifePLUS choice available to you, in case you want to tailor your insurance.

Depending on your eligibility, you can:

• decrease or increase your Income Protection waiting period from the usual 90 days,
• decrease or increase your benefit payment period from five years to two, or vice versa,
• apply for more Income Protection cover, or
• transfer cover from another super fund or insurer to CSC.

Use our LIFEapp calculator to help you estimate how much Income Protection insurance you may need. You’ll need to enter some personal and financial details to crunch the numbers.

And if you're a lifePLUS choice customer, you'll need to make sure our record of your current, annual salary is up to date. Let us know of any changes using the lifePLUS Application and variation form.

Key benefits points

Your Income Protection benefit is based on your salary

We calculate your Income Protection benefits on your base annual salary at the time of your Income Protection claim or on the salary you advised us of, whichever is less.

If your employer doesn’t tell us what your salary is when you join PSSap, we’ll work out your Income Protection benefits using a base annual salary of $47,000. With this in mind, it’s important that your employer lets us know when your salary changes (for lifePLUS auto cover, this is your employer’s responsibility). You can always check if your annual base salary is correct in our system by logging into your account and going to the Insurance section.

If you're a casual employee who has opted in to lifePLUS auto cover, you must tell us what your salary is when you join, and also let us know if it changes using the lifePLUS Application and variation form.

If you’re a lifePLUS choice customer, it’s your responsibility to let us know what your salary is and when it changes. Your recorded salary has an impact on your premiums and on your benefits—so it’s important to have an up-to-date figure recorded so you get the cover you need.

Your Income Protection benefit—how it works

How long is my benefit payment period?

Depending on your cover, you’ll either have a two- or five-year benefit payment period under your Income Protection cover.

If you have a two-year benefit payment period, you’ll be paid benefits for:

• up to two years if you’re a permanent employee, or
• up to two years or your contract end date—whichever happens first, if you’re not a permanent employee.

If you have a five-year benefit payment period, you’ll be paid benefits for:

• up to five years if you’re a permanent employee, or
• up to five years or your contract end date—whichever happens first, if you’re not a permanent employee.

How much will I receive?

If you have a two-year benefit payment period, you’ll get monthly payments of up to 90.4% of your reported base annual salary (pre-disability), with 75% of that salary going straight to you and 15.4% going into your super account.

If you have a five-year benefit payment period:

• For the first two years (or on your contract end date if is before two years and you are not a permanent employee), you’ll get monthly payments of 90.4% of your reported base annual salary (pre-disability), with 75% going straight to you and 15.4% going into your super account.
• For the next three years (or on your contract end date if it is before the next three years and you are not a permanent employee), you’ll get monthly payments of 65.4% of your base annual salary (pre-disability), with 50% going direct to you and 15.4% going into your super account.
• After a year of being paid benefits, we’ll index your payments each year by either the consumer price index or 5%, whichever is less.

We might have to reduce your Income Protection benefits if you’re still receiving income from other sources. For example, if you’re receiving:

• workers’ compensation, transport accident compensation or similar payments that relate to your sickness or injury,
• income from your employer while also receiving benefit payments,
• income protection benefits from other insurers, or
• sick leave entitlements from other sources.

Partial benefits

You might be able to receive a partial disability benefit if you were totally disabled for 10 out of 14 consecutive days within your waiting period or if you meet the definition of ‘Partial Disability’ after the waiting period.