Standard Bank Insurance: Speak to us in case you have a valid COVID-19 insurance claim

Standard Bank Insurance (Standard Bank Insurance Brokers & Standard Insurance Limited) is calling upon its business and individual insurance clients who are struggling with COVID-19 related financial difficulties to assess their policies in order to ascertain whether they can submit a valid claim to Standard Bank Insurance for loss of income, retrenchments and funeral – among other insured risks

The call also extends to employers who are implementing retrenchment programmes, or contemplate doing so, to advise their staff who have insurance products with Standard Bank Insurance to approach us in case they have a valid insurance claim.

The COVID-19 crisis has taken a severe toll on the economy, businesses and individuals’ ability to generate an income. As a result, insurance claims volumes have risen dramatically in recent months, prompting Standard Bank Insurance to enhance its capacity to process claims. However, some clients may still be unaware that they have valid claims, including those linked to credit products such as personal and home loans in the event of loss of income.

While the credit insurance policies of some clients only included cover for retrenchment previously, Standard Bank Insurance’s cover was expanded to also include loss of income. In the first seven months of 2020, retrenchment claims linked to the bank’s credit book have already doubled year-on-year. This could rise further in the months ahead.

Inspired by the need to assist, Standard Bank Insurance became the first bank to announce several financial relief measures in March this year to protect its clients from the adverse effects of the pandemic. In the insurance space, these measures included:

• A 25% cash back on car insurance premiums payable during the lockdown period from 27 March to 31 May with 10% cash back applied for the month of June 2020. This was paid to individual clients and commercial/business clients whilst maintaining full car insurance cover.

• Short-term insurance home claims (car and home insurance) – 10% discount on the excess payable for claims on fire, geyser and pipe bursts and if security was compromised. This offer is available to clients with home loans of R1m and less.
• Car insurance claims – a 10% excess waiver available for vehicles with an insured value of R150 000 or less.
• Facilitated upfront payments and settling our Service Providers’ invoices immediately to improve their cash flow.
• Provided Loss of Income benefit to compulsory credit life policies, including on Affordable Housing loans, that were taken before August 2017.
• Waived credit life premiums on all student loans.
• Delayed lapsing policies that missed the third premium during the lapse period.

Leon Vermaak, Global Head of Insurance says Standard Bank Insurance has been communicating with clients (directly through mail, email and SMS, and through social media and digital channels) on a regular basis about claiming as a result of loss of income, retrenchments and other insurance relief measures available to them.

He explained that the insurance arm has also been proactively engaging clients who work for companies that have made public announcements to retrenchment their employees/our clients. The insurance arm had also recorded a 100% increase on retrenchment claims year-on-year for the first 7 months, while funeral claims are up by 20%, partly due to COVID-19 and excess deaths.

“The increase in claims and client queries has put pressure on our servicing teams. However, our teams have been resilient, and several business initiatives have been put in place to ensure that we continue to deliver valuable service to all our clients. Most of the servicing team members are working from home and we are successfully assisting our clients remotely,” says Vermaak.

*Products underwritten by Standard Insurance Limited. Standard Insurance Limited (“SIL”) is a short-term insurance company (Reg. No. 1993/007593/06) within the Standard Bank Group, and authorised financial services provider FSP 33348. Standard Bank Insurance Brokers (Pty) Ltd (“SBIB”) is an authorised financial services provider FSP 224. SBIB is a group company of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (Reg No. 1962/00738/06), an authorised financial services and registered credit provider (NCRCP15).