Group Protection claims and support

I’m Lyndsey, I’m a Claims Case Manager for Group Income Protection here at Aviva.

We get notifications every day from employers looking to make a claim, or receive rehabilitation support for their employees.

Alison’s employer contacted me to let me know that she was struggling at work, due to ongoing symptoms regarding her Stiff Person’s Syndrome diagnosis.

This meant that she was struggling with pain in her upper torso, arms, legs, but also being off work had impacted her mental health, so she was struggling with anxiety and depression.

Alison described her feelings as ‘living in a pit of darkness’. She was really struggling and feeling isolated and alone.

I could see this was a sensitive situation and that Alison needed support straight away.

Alison was really worried understandably that she may lose her job and have to rely on friends or family for support financially. This is where the Group Income Protection policy comes into place.

I obtained Alison’s medical information and referred over to our Consultant Medical Adviser to understand treatment pathways.

She was getting frustrated within the workplace, as she was needing more and more time off, and just wanted to excel within her career.

Her employer were worried that this role was no longer suitable for her, but she really enjoyed her job, and was really eager to be able to stay within the workplace and be able to return to her role at some point.

This is a really tricky situation for both her employer and for Alison to be in.

The stress of the situation, being absent from work, and feeling the frustration of not being able to carry out her role further exacerbated Alison’s symptoms of anxiety and depression.

I became her dedicated case manager. I was Aviva for Alison, from the minute we started talking together, right through the claims process.

We spoke about her claim and any further support we may be able to offer.

As Alison had had previous absences due to her ongoing symptoms associated with Stiff Person’s Syndrome, I was able to piece those absences together to form a deferred period. So I was able to pay her claim sooner rather than later.

The policy meant that she receives 67% of her salary every month, the benefit basis that her employer put into place.

Alison will continue to receive this until she returns to work, or reaches retirement age if she remains medically supported. These payments give her a financial safety net, doing exactly what the policy is designed for. And she was struggling financially before the claim, worrying about how she would pay for her home, or if she would need to ask her family to help her out.

The payments have alleviated her stress, and its allowed her to concentrate on her health and getting better.

Although Alison didn’t want to be filmed herself, she’s happy for me to share her story on her behalf, and she’s allowed us to use a voice actor to share her thoughts.

I am really glad I was given my case manager as she has made such an impact on me personally. She made me feel so comfortable in our first call, I was able to be open and honest with her about my past mental health history.

She was so kind and never lost that human touch - something that you never expect with insurance.

Aviva has given me control over my financial life again and I could not be more grateful.

For more information on Aviva Group Income Protection, contact your employer, financial adviser or usual Aviva contact. Or visit us online at aviva.co.uk or search Aviva advisers.

Hi, my name's Kate Meads, and I'm director of Kate Meads Associates, otherwise known as KMA.

We provide vocational rehabilitation services to customers of Aviva under the Group Income Protection Scheme. 

Aviva will refer employees over to us who are either on long-term sick or at risk of going off sick, and the ultimate goal of what we do is to facilitate somebody returning to work in a sustainable manner. 

It doesn't matter if you've got mental illness, a physical illness, an injury. It is purely looking at, okay, what's this person require to return to work? 

We might be recommending a phased return to work, but prior that it might be we need to do a work preparation program to get the person to the point of being able to return to work.

It could be developing fatigue management skills, building cognitive resilience as well as physical resilience.

And at every step we link in with the employer, so that's HR, maybe the line report or whatever team is around that employee. 

A good example of someone we've worked with is, a man called Simon.

He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Not only did he have multiple sclerosis, he had social issues in terms of his wife was very poorly and complexities of home life as well.

What we did with him was to empower him, to identify what his needs were, what needed to be different at work.

During the process of working with us, he developed another lesion, which impacted on his function. And for him, there was that fear that he was not going to be able to get back to work. He felt that he was doing things wrong. 

And what we could do is actually then identify pacing strategies to do, ways in which he could build his physical stamina up. Encourage him to think about different ways of working.

We would set him tasks each week after each session. He would let us know how he was going. And then it was also linking in with, key stakeholders in the workplace to support him.

He resumed his full time working and his roles and responsibilities.

He is willing to share his feedback.

I was never in a position where I did not want to be at work. I wanted to be of value, but I lost my way.

I knew I needed to do things differently, but I didn’t know how, I just needed someone to guide me through it. 

Kate’s support has been invaluable in helping me get into the right headspace. I found the whole process very easy, and it all happened quite naturally.

Aviva recognised I wanted to work and were able to support with that.

Vocational rehabilitation services are non-contractual benefits Aviva can change or withdraw at any time.

For more information on Aviva Group Income Protection and these services, contact your employer, financial adviser or your usual Aviva contact or visit us online, at aviva.co.uk or search Aviva advisers.

I’m Alex, I’m 57 years old, and in March 2024 my life changed. I was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer.  

I was working, and still continue to work, for a small family run firm, with about 15 employees, as a financial adviser. 

I’ve always been active. I remain an active member of the local rugby club and have a great social life, and my health seemed fine.

At the time, I had no symptoms for cancer, but my partner had been badgering me to ensure that I go and get the PSA test, to check for prostate levels in my blood.

The nurse wasn’t keen at first as it’s not a normal, automatic test.

What they found with the test results, the GP said ‘I’m not too concerned, but I think it’d be worth sending you for an MRI scan’. 

At the time, I didn’t expect to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, I felt fine. But I was remarkably sanguine when they told me the news. I guess I’d prepared myself for the worst and hoped for the best. 

My mind immediately turned to ‘what’s the best route for me?’

I decided that the radiotherapy route was the best route.

I also began monthly hormone therapy injections. It basically puts your hormones into the menopause state, which is an interesting experience, and thankfully just temporarily. 

I had other treatments too.

I needed to pay for travel for lots of my appointments and to take time of time off work, which my employer was fantastic about.  

But at the time, it was the treatment that was important, not the finances. I wasn’t thinking about how is this going to impact on my financial side.

I didn’t tell many people originally, because, I think with cancer, it’s one of those ones where, you know, you’re going on this journey on your own, to a certain extent, and, I just told a few close confidants.

It was one of my colleagues who reminded me about the critical illness cover that I have with Aviva. And that nudge was a little ironic, given it’s a policy I recommend to all my clients, but I wasn’t necessarily thinking about it for myself at that immediate moment in time.  

And I must admit, I was blown away by how simple it was to claim. I completed a short form, and my case manager did the rest.

I then got notified that my claim had been accepted and payment was made. 

It allowed me to have support for the costs of going to these treatments, for medical costs, and also give me the option, should I wish, to do things like pay off a mortgage, to take the pressure off you financially.

It alleviated some of the stress associated with such serious illnesses as cancer.

So I’m glad the policy was there for when I needed it. You hope never to have to claim on a critical illness, I’d rather not have claimed on the critical illness policy, but when I need to, it was there for me.

Having now become a statistic, I now know at first-hand how important it is to have that critical illness in place.

For more information on Aviva Group Critical Illness cover, contact your employer, financial adviser or your usual Aviva contact. Or visit us online, at aviva.co.uk or search Aviva advisers.

My whole understanding of what insurance policies and insurance companies can do has changed.

Hi, my name is Kirsty. I'm in my early fifties and I was quite happily going through life, working,

living at home with my dog, out and about.

Around about my 50th birthday in the march, I got a call for a mammogram and they discovered

a primary but advanced tumour, and I remember sitting with the breast care nurse who was

lovely, and I remember her asking me to put my arms above my head as she drew onto the affected breast and told me that I had a large lump in there.

And I just remember looking out of the window trying to catch my breath, looking at the people walking by and thinking, life is never going to be the same.

Everything changed. It's been really hard. It's been two years out of my life now.

So the last thing you want at that point in your life is to have to worry about whether or not you're going to be able to feed yourself, heat the house, run the car… and that's where the insurance policies came in.

So one of the policies was the income protection. That was just a real lifeline in many ways.

There's a lot of expense that I wasn't expecting to have, like little silly things that all stack up like car parking at the hospital, maybe extra dog walking and maybe a cleaner. So that's been a big eye opener for me.

I also had critical illness cover. It's been a huge source of support in the sense that it's given me peace of mind. I hadn't even realised that there was more to the policy than just ‘just’ paying me out, paying money.

I was really surprised to get the rehab support, I had no idea that that would be included when I thought of insurance policies, I just thought of finance.

My whole understanding of what insurance policies and insurance companies can do has changed.

Group Income Protection offers early intervention and rehabilitation support services, these are non-contractual benefits that Aviva can change or remove at any time.

Group Income Protection pays out if during the policy term, you’re unable to work due to illness or injury and suffer a loss of earnings as a result.

Group Critical Illness pays out if, during the policy term, you’re diagnosed with one of our list of critical illnesses that meets our definition, and you survive for at least 14 days.

For both products, there is no cash in value at any time Your financial adviser or employer can explain how the products work and when they would pay out.

I went for the results, and the consultant’s first words when I sat down in the office were, “I’m really sorry. It’s not good news.”

I'm Emma, I'm a children's nurse. I’m currently working in education. I have grown-up children 23 and 25, and I'm currently undergoing treatments for lobular breast cancer.

I had some lumps in my breast. I had an operation to remove what they thought was three fibroadenomas. They'd removed the fibroadenomas, but they'd found invasive lobular carcinoma.

That was a big shock because I really wasn't expecting that. My second operation was planned. It was quite an extensive operation, but unfortunately, when I got the results of that one, they'd found five different tumours, quite a lot more cancer than they had expected. They'd also found that it was in my sentinel lymph nodes. I had to have a mastectomy and they checked some more lymph nodes, again, not expecting them to be positive, but there were a couple that were positive.

I started chemo, and then I'll still need some radiotherapy and I’ll need some hormone therapy, probably more long-term. This was all quite a lot because originally, I was told I'd need about eight weeks off work. I looked at my critical illness insurance. Your head is in a spin with everything going on, but that was the one thing that looked positive.

There's not very many positives about being diagnosed with breast cancer, and there's so many worries that you have, but actually, this was something that I could do actively. The claim process was really easy. When the claim was paid, it was a lot of relief. I was very lucky, and I get good sick benefit, I get six months full pay, six months half pay, but I realized that I would probably be going to half pay. And actually, having my mortgage paid was a complete relief.

Chronic illnesses take a long time. You need the cover, to cover you while you're ill. It's an expense you can't afford not to take. But I'm just so grateful that we bought that policy.

Critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum and is designed to help support you and your family financially.

It’s there to help you focus on your recovery without worrying about how the bills will be paid.

You can choose how long you want the policy to last and the amount of money you’re covered for.

Your financial adviser can explain how Aviva’s critical illness works and when it would pay out.