One of the main benefits of income protection is that it covers tradies both at work and at play.
But when it comes to ‘play’ there are some major differences. From the insurance companies’ perspective, playing around with your kids in the backyard is different to playing footy for your local club.
With many tradies being young fit blokes, and with many young fit blokes playing amateur footy, this is certainly an important factor to consider when taking out income protection insurance.
Am I covered whilst playing amateur footy?
In most cases the answer is yes, however the insurers do place some restrictions and exclusions on being able to claim for an injury suffered whilst playing football.
Most of the insurers offer two options when it comes to covering amateur footy:
Option 1: Your premium will be subject to a 25% loading. This simply means that your insurance will be 25% more expensive.
Option 2: Your waiting period for that activity will be increased to 90 days. This means that if you need to make a claim as a result of an injury suffered whilst playing football, you will have to be unable to work for 90 days before being eligible to make a claim.
What if I get paid to play?
Most of the insurers regard amateur football as that which you do not receive any payment for.
This is fine for most tradies who play for their local amateur club, but there are some situations, generally within senior teams, where small match payments may be made to players.
In this situation most insurers will refuse cover, but some, such as AMP, will consider cover if the match payments are below a certain amount.
Either way, match payments will not be covered in your income protection benefit, which only takes into account the income you generate from your main occupation.
Do I have to tell the insurance company?
As with anything that could affect the risk you pose to the insurance company, you must inform your insurance company if you are playing any form of amateur football.
Virtually all income protection applications specifically ask about football and other sports, so if you answer this question incorrectly you will be breaching your duty of disclosure and could find yourself in trouble.
Insurers and their policies
The following table details each of the major life insurers in Australia along with the coverage they offer for tradies and manual workers playing any of the major football codes.
These guidelines could still change on a case-by-case depending on your injury history.
For example if you have a poor history of injuries and time away from work as a result of your playing, the insurer may place further restrictions or exclusions on your cover.
The above table has been compiled using information from the adviser guides of each insurance company.
The information is current at the time of writing (May 2013) but is subject to change at any time.
What about touch football and similar?
All insurers we looked at in compiling this report provide cover for touch football with no additional restrictions or exclusions.
Most of them group OzTag with touch footy, and some also include indoor soccer in this category.
If you play OzTag or indoor soccer and it is not specifically listed by the insurer as being covered, it would be a good idea to mention it in your application just in case.
Blue Collar v White Collar
You may have noticed that earlier in this guide we specifically referred to the coverage offered to tradies and manual workers when playing footy.
This isn’t simply because our target market are tradies, but because most of the insurers do have different rules for blue collar and white collar workers when it comes to amateur football.
Whilst blue collar workers do face a range of restrictions when playing football, white collar workers will generally escape these restrictions.
Why is that? It is because many injuries suffered whilst playing footy, such as a broken arm or leg, would seriously affect a tradie’s ability to work, but would generally not stop an office worker from continuing to work.
More information
We have put together this guide using our best efforts and all of the resources available to us.
Despite this, the insurers can change their guidelines at any time, and they can also change the rules on a case by case basis if they see fit.
It’s important to keep in mind that the information contained in this guide is just that, a guide, and should not be seen as confirmation that a certain policy does or does not offer cover.
If you play amateur football and would like more information about income protection insurance, please contact our office on 1800 808 800 to speak with one of our trade experts.
