There are also a few optional covers designed to provide even greater peace of mind:
Career break coverage
While you’re on a career break, you work less or not at all, but your employment contract remains intact. During a (full-time) career break, however, your Income Protection insurance is suspended and you are no longer covered.
Has your employer included optional career break coverage in your plan? If so, you’ll still be entitled to your Income Protection coverage for all "justified career breaks" (e.g. medical leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition), for up to a maximum of one year. This means that you’ll receive a replacement income once you have served the applicable waiting period, provided that you intend to return to work afterwards.
The following example will help clarify the situation. Let’s say you’ve taken a career break from 1 January to 1 May. On 1 March, you come down with an illness and your waiting period is 30 days. On 1 May, you’re still feeling unwell. You then start collecting a replacement income as of 1 May; you’ve served the waiting period but had planned to go back to work on 1 May. If you didn’t have career break coverage, you wouldn’t be entitled to a replacement income.
Return-to-work assistance
If you’re off work due to a stress-related condition such as depression or burnout syndrome, in most cases, as an AG Employee Benefits plan participant, you’ll be entitled to voluntary return-to-work assistance, available free of charge through our independent external care providers. This way, you’ll get the tools you need to ease your transition back to the workplace safely and successfully.
Want to find out if your plan includes these additional covers? Just log in to My Global Benefits.