Coronavirus and updates to our underwiting
In these unprecedented times, we’re committed to helping you cover as many of your clients as possible. But we’ve had to make some changes to our business operations to adapt to the new normal.
The Coronavirus pandemic is increasing demand on the NHS to deliver primary care, with an understandable impact on availability of medical evidence. This means we’re making some temporary changes to our underwriting.
What you need to know
We’ve added a new Coronavirus-related question to applications to help us better establish and manage the insurance risks of the disease. Front line health workers are in a unique position, so in most cases we can progress their application even if they answer the ‘direct contact’ question positively.
We’re only requesting medical evidence where we absolutely have to. It’s likely we won’t receive this, or that it’s delayed, so cover could be postponed. We’ll continue to look at other ways to complete underwriting wherever possible.
For Life Cover, we’re increasing our non-medical limits by 10% for clients under age 60, to help more people get the protection they need. By limiting requests for medical evidence, we can help reduce the demands on the NHS and offer your clients some cover, without delay.
We’re temporarily changing our underwriting position for some higher-risk customer groups. This means we won’t be able to cover some customers who are rated and others who have existing health issues, such as significant or chronic respiratory conditions.
Cover for the majority of clients
We still expect to be able to cover the majority of customers. Before these changes, we offered cover to 95 out of every 100 customers. We now expect to cover 92 out of every 100 customers.
These changes take effect from 16 April and impact new applications, and pipeline applications where we’ve not issued an acceptance letter.
We’ve updated our online service and pre-sale tool so you can easily see the impact to any of your clients.
Keeping you up to date
The current situation continues to change rapidly. We’re following updates and guidance from government and health officials and will of course update you if we make any further changes.
Thank you for your continued support during these challenging times.
Practical support during the COVID-19 pandemic
We know social distancing measures mean you can’t be there in person for your clients. But that doesn’t mean your advice has to stop.
In fact, now, probably more than ever, your clients will need your guidance to help protect themselves and their businesses in uncertain times.
Making working online easy
We’ve created a new one-stop-shop webpage where you can find tools and support to help you have remote protection conversations.
You’ll find:
- Information on our end-to-end, signature free online service.
- Online tools, calculators and technical support.
- Handy links to business communication tools.
- The latest Government and business advice.
- We’re here for you, so you can still be there for your clients.
