
What is family violence?
In Australian law, ‘family violence’ is defined as: “violent, threatening or other behaviour by a person that coerces or controls a member of the person’s family… or causes the family member to be fearful.” Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), section 4AB.
Our commitment to customers impacted by family and domestic violence
Team Member Support
Family and domestic violence advice and support
1800RESPECT: www.1800respect.org.au or at 1800 737 732 (24 hours)
24 hour national sexual assault, FDV counselling line for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, FDV and/or sexual assault.
Rape and Domestic Violence Services: https://www.rape-dvservices.org.au/ or at 1800 211 028. Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia supports people affected by sexual, domestic or family violence.
National Debt Helpline: https://ndh.org.au or at 1800 007 007 9.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Policy, we encourage you to reach out to compliance.au@assurant.com.
What is Financial Hardship?
Financial Hardship means you are having difficulty meeting your financial obligations to us. It may be caused by a number of factors, such as change in employment, illness, injury, major natural disasters, unforeseen weather events or health epidemics.
Our commitment to customers impacted by Financial Hardship
If you share with us, or we identify that you are experiencing financial hardship, we will take the time to listen and respond appropriately.
Fast-track a claim
You have a right to ask us to fast-track a claim if you have an urgent financial need.
Where the event (for example, a natural disaster) that caused you to make a claim under your policy also caused you to be in urgent financial need of the benefits you are entitled to under that policy, then we will fast-track both our assessment of your claim and the process we follow to make a decision about your claim.
Financial Hardship support
You may be entitled to support because you are suffering Financial Hardship if you are:
The support that we provide does not include support with paying the premiums under an insurance policy we have issued.
Identifying people experiencing Financial Hardship
We will have internal policies and training appropriate to our Employees’ roles to help them identify if you are experiencing Financial Hardship and decide how they may be able to provide support to you.
We encourage you or your representative to tell us about your Financial Hardship so that we can work with you to discuss your situation and the options available to support you — otherwise there is a risk that we may not find out about it.
If you tell us, or we identify, that you are experiencing Financial Hardship, we will give you:
National Debt Helpline
If you tell us, or we identify that you are experiencing financial hardship, we may provide contact details for National Debt Helpline. They are a not-for-profit service that helps people tackle their debt problems. Their professional financial counsellors offer a free, independent and confidential service.
National Debt Helpline: 1800 007 007
9.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday
Website: https://ndh.org.au
Keeping you informed
We will communicate with you about your application and where possible, we will use your preferred method of communication.
If we know that you have nominated a representative, then we will keep that person updated about your request for Financial Hardship support, unless you tell us not to.
Assessing your request for Financial Hardship support
When we are assessing your request for Financial Hardship support, we will consider all reasonable evidence – for example:
We will request information from you only if it is reasonably necessary for us to assess your application for Financial Hardship support.
If, after we receive your application for Financial Hardship support, we need more information from you before we can make our decision, then we will:
You have 21 Calendar Days from the date of our request to provide that information to us unless we have agreed to a different timeframe.
Complete and submit your application
You may download our Financial Hardship Application Form here. Upon completion, submit your supporting documents which evidence your Financial Hardship.
Submit your completed financial hardship application and all supporting information to Customerfeedback@assurant.com
Making our decision
We will tell you in writing of our decision about whether to give you Financial Hardship support within 21 Calendar Days after we receive your application, unless we have asked you to provide us with more information.
If we do ask you for more information and:
If you are entitled to financial hardship support
If we decide you are entitled to Financial Hardship support, then we will work with you to implement an arrangement that could include any one or more of the following:
We will confirm the agreed arrangement with you. Where possible this will be in your preferred method of communication. If we agree you are entitled to Financial Hardship support, but we are unable to agree about how you can be supported, then we will tell you in writing, about our Complaints process.
If you are not entitled to financial hardship support
If we decide that you are not entitled to Financial Hardship support, we will tell you the reasons for our decision and about our Complaints process. Where possible, we will tell you this in your preferred method of communication.
If your circumstances change, then you may re-apply for Financial Hardship support in relation to the amount you owe. However, for any further application you make, it will be at our discretion whether we again put any recovery action on hold.
Financial Hardship provisions in the General Insurance Code of Practice
For information on all the available Financial Hardship provisions, visit the Insurance Council of Australia website here to download a copy of the current General Insurance Code of Practice