Insurance for hospitality workers

Insurers split hospitality along the pass. A chef works with knives, hot surfaces, deep fryers, heavy stock and slippery floors, for long shifts, at speed. That is rated as genuine manual work. A restaurant manager, a front-of-house supervisor or a sommelier is rated considerably lighter. If you do both — and in small operations most people do — the rating usually follows the heavier component, so describe the split.

The injury pattern is unglamorous and consistent: burns, lacerations, slips, and back and shoulder strain from lifting stock and standing for twelve hours. Almost all of it is accidental injury, which means ACC covers it, including treatment and weekly compensation. The uninsured exposure, once again, is illness.

The structural problem in hospitality is hours. Casual contracts, split shifts, seasonal peaks in tourist towns and variable rosters are normal. Most income protection policies contain a minimum weekly hours requirement, and genuinely casual work can fall below it. Where hours are sufficient but income is variable, the calculation used at claim time becomes the important detail.

For a lot of hospitality workers, that adds up to an honest conclusion: income protection may not be the right first purchase. A trauma policy, or mortgage repayment cover sized to the loan, often delivers more useful protection per dollar.

Rather than forcing a product to fit, it is worth looking at what each one actually requires of you.

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

• Whether you have been rated as kitchen or front of house, and whether that matches what you actually do.
• The minimum hours requirement in any income protection policy if your roster varies.
• How income is calculated at claim time if your hours change week to week.
• Whether accident-only cover is being offered, which duplicates ACC and leaves illness uncovered.
• If you own the business, whether lease, fit-out and equipment finance are covered by anything.
• Any exclusion applied to an existing back, wrist or shoulder condition.

Every New Zealand insurer writes cover for hospitality work 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.

• Kitchen and front-of-house roles are rated differently, and a mixed role should be described rather than coded generically.
• Where casual hours make income protection impractical, an adviser can size trauma or mortgage cover to do a similar job for less.
• Alcohol and lifestyle questions are underwritten differently by different insurers, and where the application goes affects the outcome.
• Hospitality business owners need cover for lease and equipment obligations, which personal policies do not touch.

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.