Income protection for shift and seasonal workers

New Zealand runs on shift and seasonal work — nursing, manufacturing, freight, hospitality, horticulture, shearing, processing and fishing. The income these jobs produce is real and often substantial, but it does not arrive as a flat fortnightly salary, which is what insurance financial underwriting was originally designed around.

Insurers deal with it by looking at a period rather than a moment. Financial evidence is usually assessed over twelve months or more, sometimes with an average taken across two or three years, so that peaks and troughs even out. Whether allowances, penal rates and regular overtime are included in that figure depends on the insurer and on how consistently you earn them.

The risk in a strict indemnity structure is that the twelve months immediately before a claim happen to be a poor twelve months — a short season, an injury that reduced hours, a plant closure. Loss of earnings cover with a wider reference period, or agreed value cover where available, protects against that.

1. 1Gather three years of tax returns or summaries of earnings before you apply, not at claim time.
2. 2Identify which components of your income are regular enough to be counted — base rate, allowances, penal rates, consistent overtime.
3. 3Ask each insurer how it defines income for your work pattern, and get the answer in writing.
4. 4Prefer a structure with a wide reference period if agreed value is not available.
5. 5Set a waiting period that reflects the reality of your work — casual and seasonal workers often have no sick leave at all.
6. 6Review annually, particularly if you move between industries or your hours change permanently.

These are the details that decide whether the cover does what you expected. Read them before you compare on price.

• How the policy defines pre-disability income and over what period.
• Whether shift allowances, penal rates and overtime are included in the insurable income.
• How a disability arising between seasons or between contracts is assessed.
• Whether the policy requires you to be in employment at the date of disability.
• Your occupation classification, which drives price and available benefit periods.
• Whether cover continues if you move between employers or industries, which is common in seasonal work.

Every New Zealand insurer writes income protection in new zealand to its own wording, and the words are where the money is. Two policies that look identical on price can pay very differently when it matters. Closing that gap is the entire job of an adviser.

• Income definitions for irregular earners differ substantially between insurers, and the right one can change the insurable benefit significantly.
• Occupation classification for shift and manual work is not consistent, so the same person can be rated differently by different insurers.
• For seasonal workers, an adviser can identify insurers whose wordings handle off-season disability sensibly.
• Where ACC covers much of the accident risk in a physical occupation, an ACC top-up structure can lower the cost of insuring the illness risk.

There are three ways to buy life cover in New Zealand, and they are not equivalent. You can buy direct from one insurer, which means you see one product range and one underwriting appetite. You can buy through your bank, which usually means a single insurer’s product sold under the bank’s brand, often with narrower definitions. Or you can go through an adviser, who quotes several insurers at once and is required to put your interests first.

The premium you pay is the same either way. Insurers build adviser commission into their pricing whether or not an adviser is involved, so going direct does not get you a discount — it just removes the person whose job is to argue your corner at application and at claim time.

• An adviser can see which insurer is currently taking your health history on standard terms, and which one will load or exclude it.
• An adviser can structure cover across two insurers if that produces a better outcome than putting everything with one.
• An adviser handles the underwriting back-and-forth, and is the person who chases the claim when a family is least able to.
• An adviser has to document why the recommendation suits you, which is a written record you can hold them to.

We are a referral service, not an insurer. We do not quote premiums and we do not sell policies. What we do is put you in front of one licensed New Zealand adviser who can compare the market properly.

1. 1

   You tell us what you are looking at

   The form takes about a minute. Nobody asks for your medical history on a web form — that conversation happens with the adviser, properly, and only once you have decided to proceed.

2. 2

   An adviser calls you

   A licensed New Zealand adviser talks through your situation: who depends on you, what you owe, what you already have in place, and what you are actually worried about.

3. 3

   They compare the market

   The adviser quotes across the major insurers, checks which of them will take your health history on the best terms, and puts the options side by side in writing.

4. 4

   You decide, in your own time

   There is no obligation and no cost to you. If the answer is that you already have enough cover, a good adviser will tell you that.