Insurance explained
At Mine Super, we offer a range of flexible insurance options designed to protect you and your family if you’re unable to work because of illness or injury, become permanently disabled or die. Eligible new members aged under 65 receive automatic insurance which includes Basic Insurance Cover (made up of Death and Terminal Illness (DTI) and Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance) and standard Income Protection (IP) insurance, without the need for health assessments or other information.
Members are also able to increase or decrease cover according to individual needs, by applying for Voluntary Insurance Cover, or by amending the Income Protection benefit they’re insured for. Handy tip: as a member, you can review your insurance cover in your online account, including the type of insurance and how much cover you have.
What's included in automatic insurance cover
When you receive automatic insurance cover, you’ll be given the insurance cover outlined below:
*For more information, please see our Insurance Guide or call us on 13 64 63.
Note: If you don’t tell us your salary, we'll use a fortnightly sum insured of $2,600, including a superannuation contribution component, to calculate the cost of your insurance. You can change your default cover settings such as your job classification, salary, waiting or benefit period at any time. In making a change, it may result in a change to the cost of cover.
Your job classification and salary
When you receive automatic insurance cover, we won't give you a job classification until you tell us one and your job classification will show as ‘Undeclared’. It's important you tell us your job classification as soon as possible as it affects how much you pay for your insurance. If you don't tell us, you could pay more for your insurance than you have to.
There are five job classifications:
| Job Classification | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mining | You perform light or heavy manual work in an underground mine for more than 5% of your total work time or work in any other high risk occupation agreed between the insurer and Mine Super. |
| Heavy manual | You perform heavy manual work or work in an open-cut mine for more than 20% of your total work time and spend less than 5% of your work time in an underground mine, so long as you’re not defined as ‘mining’. This category includes duties such as bricklayer, roof carpenter and truck, forklift or bulldozer driver. |
| Light manual | You perform light manual work for more than 20% of your total work time and spend less than 5% of your work time in an underground mine, so long as you’re not defined as ‘heavy manual’ or ‘mining’. This category includes duties such as carpenter, electrician, plumber and factory production manager. |
| White collar | You work in a predominantly office based sedentary occupation for over 80% of your total work time and earn $80,000 per annum or less, excluding employer super contributions, so long as you’re not defined as ‘mining'. |
| Professional | You work in a predominantly office based sedentary occupation for over 80% of your total work time and earn more than $80,000 per annum, excluding employer super contributions, so long as you’re not defined as ‘mining’. |
For more information about job classifications refer to our Insurance Guide. To update your job classification and / or insured salary, complete a Change my insurance form or call us on
13 64 63.
Insurance cover available
Check out the options below to find out more about the insurance cover available on your Mine Super account.
Death and Terminal Illness (DTI)
What is DTI?
Death and Terminal Illness (DTI) insurance pays a lump sum if you die or you’re terminally ill and medically certified to have less than 24 months to live.
The lump sum from DTI insurance can be used to help:
- repay the mortgage and other debts
- generate an ongoing income for your family
- pay part of an estate plan for your beneficiaries
- cover medical and funeral costs.
Eligible members automatically receive a set amount of Basic DTI insurance. If this isn’t enough for you or you’re not eligible, you can apply for Voluntary DTI insurance. To find out more about eligibility please read the PDS and Insurance Guide.
Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD)
What is TPD?
Claiming on your TPD insurance
If you’re injured or ill and this has stopped you from working, make sure you give us a call as soon as you can on 13 64 63 to see if you meet the TPD definition and may be eligible to make a claim. You can make a claim on your TPD insurance even if you:
- receive workers compensation payments
- become injured or fall ill outside of work
- are already claiming income protection benefits.
Income Protection (IP)
What is IP?
Income
Protection (IP) insurance provides a temporary income if you can’t work because
of illness or injury. You’ll receive IP payments for the duration of your
benefit period, as long as your treating doctor certifies that you continue to
be unable to work. This benefit is paid on a regular basis, not as a lump sum,
and is taxed as normal income. This type of insurance helps you continue paying
your rent or mortgage, bills and covers the cost of running your car plus other
daily living expenses.
How do I get IP insurance?
You’ll automatically receive standard IP insurance once you become eligible. Standard IP covers you for:
- Illnesses: if you have full cover, you’re covered for illnesses that first became apparent before and after your insurance started. If you have Limited Cover you’re only covered for illnesses that first become apparent after your insurance starts.
- Injuries: if you have full cover, you’re covered for injuries that occur after your insurance starts. You're not covered for injuries that occurred before your insurance started.
If you’re not eligible for standard IP insurance, you can apply for Income Protection insurance at any time before you reach age 65. To find out more about eligibility and IP cover options and any restrictions, read our Insurance Guide.
How much are you covered for?
Our IP insurance covers you for the lesser of a fortnightly sum insured of $2,600 at the date you became disabled or 84.5% of your actual salary you earned in the 12 months prior to becoming disabled. If you’ve worked for an Industry Employer for less than 12 months, your salary will be based on your average salary taken from the commencement of employment to the date you became disabled. This includes a super contribution component paid to your Mine Super account (calculated using the compulsory super contribution rate current at the date of your disablement), with the remaining amount paid to you directly. The super contribution component can change in line with super law. If you're working but can't do all of your normal role due to your injury or illness, and your usual income is reduced, you may be covered for the difference between what you're getting paid and your salary prior to being unable to work.
There's a maximum amount you can be insured for. If your job classification is showing as 'Undeclared' or people working in mining, heavy manual or light manual jobs can have insurance to a maximum of $11,538.46 per fortnight, while those working in white collar and professional jobs can have insurance to a maximum of $18,461.54 per fortnight.
Other income
Any other payments received as income might reduce your benefit. This may include things like employer paid leave (sick, annual or long service leave), compensation payments (workers compensation, motor accident compensation or other statutory scheme), payments from other insurance policies or income from a job that's not your usual one. Income from Centrelink, Department of Veteran Affairs, superannuation pensions and annuities, investments, lump sum TPD and trauma insurance benefits and genuine gifts won't reduce the amount you receive.
Tailoring your IP insurance
There are some features of your IP insurance you can tailor to suit your needs. These changes will affect the premium you pay for your insurance.
Your waiting period
This is the continuous period of days you are off work due to your injury or illness, before a benefit can be paid. You can apply to change the standard 60 day waiting period to 14 (can only be taken with a two year benefit period), 30, 90 or 120 days. Generally, the longer the waiting period, the cheaper the insurance policy will be, but you need to ensure you’ll have enough money to cover you while you’re waiting. Your sick leave and any accrued annual leave you may have with your employer can cover this gap.
Did you know? You can increase your waiting period up to two years under our Policy Extension Option. If you have more than one IP policy this option allows you to extend the waiting period on your Mine Super IP insurance to up to two years to match the benefit period of your other IP policy. This means that when benefit payments stop on your other insurance, you can start having benefits paid from your Mine Super insurance. If you want to use this feature you need to tell us within 90 days of the date of your insurance welcome letter or within your current waiting period after you become sick or injured. Note that this is only available if you have a two-year benefit period and a 60 day waiting period, and your premiums won’t reduce if you select this feature.
Your benefit payment period
This is the maximum amount of time the IP benefit can be paid to you if you are ill or injured and can’t work. We offer a standard two year benefit period, which can be increased to five years by application. Increasing your benefit payment period will also increase the cost of your IP insurance.
Tip: If you choose a 30 day waiting period or a five year benefit payment period within 60 days of your insurance welcome letter, you’ll still be covered for pre-existing illnesses and the 20% smoker loading won’t apply (subject to eligibility).
How much does insurance cost?
The cost of your insurance depends on how much cover you have (or would like to have), your age, gender, job classification, salary, and whether you smoke or not (for Voluntary Insurance Cover and IP insurance). Premiums are generally more expensive the older you are, if you smoke, have a history of illness or work in a dangerous job.
Basic Insurance Cover (including standard IP)
You can calculate the monthly cost for Basic Insurance Cover and Income Protection cover by referring to the Premium Rates section of our Insurance Guide.
Voluntary Insurance Cover
To find out how much Voluntary Insurance Cover with Mine Super will cost, call our friendly team on 13 64 63 to get a quote over the phone. If you’re happy with the quote, we’ll send you the application forms you’ll need, or you can request to complete an application for DTI and TPD cover over the phone with our insurer.
Please note: all applications for DTI and TPD cover will need to be assessed by our insurer and they may apply conditions to your cover because of your health, lifestyle and pastimes, or decline your application.
Things to consider
By law we can only provide new members with automatic insurance cover when you have a balance of $6,000 and are at least 25 years old.
If you don’t meet these requirements or want it earlier, you can ask us to add this cover to your account.
If your super account becomes inactive (e.g. it hasn't had a contribution, including a transfer from another super fund, for 16 months or more) and you haven't let us know you want to keep your insurance, your insurance will be cancelled. Before this happens you can opt-in to keep your current insurance cover, which will allow you to keep it even if your account becomes inactive.
Once you have insurance cover, you can change or cancel it at any time. Simply call us on 13 64 63 or click here to use a form.
If you cancel your automatic Basic Insurance Cover (DTI and TPD) and / or standard IP insurance within 90 days of the date your insurance started, we’ll refund your premiums to your account*. However, if you cancel it and decide later that you want it, you won't be covered for any existing illnesses you have when you apply and won’t be covered for any existing injuries.
There might be times in the future when your insurance is cancelled or changed in line with the normal terms and conditions of our insurance, for example, if you have insufficient funds in your account to pay for your cover, or you reach the maximum age to have our insurance. To find out more please read our Insurance Guide.
If there are any material changes to your insurance, we’ll let you know in writing at least 30 days before the changes take effect. You can find out more by reading the Product Disclosure Statement and Insurance Guide. Importantly one of the best ways to keep your insurance is to make regular contributions to your account. The best way to do this is to have your employer contribute the compulsory super they pay for you to your Mine Super account.
*If you’ve chosen to opt-in for insurance, you won’t be eligible for a refund of premiums if you cancel your cover as you’ve elected to have this insurance on your account.
Turn to Mine
If you’re not sure if or how much cover you need, you can talk to an adviser from Mine Super Financial Advice, who are here to help you make confident and informed financial decisions. Meet the team or request an appointment with Mine Super Financial Advice.
About our insurance
Our Insurance Strategy
Insurance Key Facts Sheet
Insurance in Super Code of Practice
Mine Super has previously stated its intent to adopt the Insurance in Superannuation Voluntary Code of Practice (the Voluntary Code). The Code had been scheduled to come into effect on 1 January 2022.
Since the development of the Voluntary Code, the majority of the requirements in the code have been overtaken by legislative and regulatory reforms. In addition, many of the elements of the Voluntary Code have already been implemented by Mine Super to improve our members’ experience.
For this reason, the Code owners* announced on 1 July 2021 to replace the Voluntary Code. View the Insurance in super code owners shift focus to vulnerable customers and claims media release.
Guidance on issues not covered by legislation, including things like improving outcomes for vulnerable members and claims handling, has been jointly developed by the Code owners, and Mine Super will consider this guidance in our interactions with members.
* The Code owners are the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) and the Financial Services Council (FSC).