COVID-19 – Legal & General
Please see Legal & General’s website for their latest information on the impact of COVID-19 where you will also find useful information on:
- Their business continuity plans.
- The additional services available with your policy, usually free of charge, that may help at this time.
- Premium options, such as monthly payment or premium deferral.
For answers to some of your FAQs, see below.
Will cover still be in place for employees while working from home, in isolation or in quarantine?
Cover will continue for employees who are at home or self-isolating and they will be considered as actively at work (in full active employment, physically and mentally able to perform all the duties associated with their normal job as an employee on the day the cover is due to start). Our AAW definition doesn’t require someone to be physically at their workplace. We will consider an employee who is physically and mentally capable of performing all the duties of their normal job to be AAW while they follow Government advice and self-isolate as a precautionary measure.
Will cover be based on earnings prior to any reduced pay, reduced hours, no pay, unpaid leave and ‘furlough’ type situations that are starting to develop?
Our terms already allow for those on unpaid leave to be covered under the policy’s temporary absence provisions. We are happy for this to be extended to also cover those temporarily being asked to work part-time as a result of COVID-19. For Life Assurance, Dependants’ Pension and Critical Illness, cover is normally fixed at the day before the date of absence and can continue for one or three years as shown in the policy schedule. For Income Protection, cover is normally fixed at the day of first absence and can continue for one year provided we are told about the absence beforehand.
Furloughed means to take a leave of temporary absence as such we would also consider these members in line with our temporary absence for any other reason provisions.
Some employers are mentioning redundancy cover – is this something you would consider introducing as an alteration to terms at the moment? If so, on what basis?
This will be considered on a case by case basis.
With companies potentially facing uncertainty with revenues and maybe the need for Government aid, what are you considering, for example, switches to monthly premiums or reduced deposit premiums or payment holidays during the current policy year?
We will look at situations on a case by case basis.
Group Life – does a catastrophe risk apply?
The designation of COVID-19 as a pandemic would not directly be considered a ‘catastrophe’ and trigger event limit restrictions. Our standard terms don’t have pandemic restrictions. However, these could be included as non-standard terms. If these apply they will be shown in the overriding provisions section of your policy schedule.
