Life, income & funeral insurance purchased prior to 1 July 2023

No. Redundancy cover is currently not an option that’s available as part of Medibank Income Protection. If you have Standard Cover, and you cease working in paid employment for two years, you should be aware that no benefit would be payable. If this applies, you may want to reconsider the cover you have.

Premiums are a regular payment to cover the cost of your insurance policy. The cost of your cover is calculated based on personal risk factors such age, gender, occupation and lifestyle habits such as smoking. The amount of cover you have, your chosen waiting and benefit period as well as any optional extras influence the amount you need to pay.

Yes. Your income protection insurance premium is calculated on a stepped basis where premiums are recalculated each year based on your increase in age. This means your premium will increase each year as you get older to reflect your increased insurance risk.

Medibank may, from time to time, review its premium base rates. Base rates are the starting point for calculating premiums. Each customers personal risk circumstances such as gender, health and lifestyles factors are added on top of the base premium. Base premiums can be influenced by factors impacting the individual insurer or the industry as a whole such as changing mortality rates, inflation or interest rates, which can affect the cost of providing insurance. Insurers may increase base rates maintain their ability to cover future claims. Insurers may also decrease their insurance premiums in some circumstance where it's possible to do so.

Premium changes happen on the next anniversary date on your insurance policy. We’ll get in touch with you before your policy anniversary to let you know your new premium for the following year.

If you have an income protection insurance claim that is accepted, the monthly income benefit becomes payable from the end of the waiting period you choose - this is either 30 or 90 days.

Benefits are then paid monthly in arrears and continue until you are no longer disabled as defined under the policy, or you reach the end of your benefit period.

In order to pay your claim, we also need time to assess your circumstances. Accordingly, we encourage you to lodge your claim as early as possible in order to avoid delays to your claim payments.

You’ll find more information about how benefits are paid in the relevant Product Disclosure Statement. 

You may find that you can reduce the costs of your premiums by:

• varying your waiting period;
• choosing a lower benefit period;
• reducing your monthly benefit amount; or
• if you've stopped smoking for longer than 12 months (contact us and we may be able to apply a discount).

When deciding whether to adjust any of these aspects of your cover, you should consider your financial situation and the impact the change may have on you in the event you need to claim. 

Income Protection insurance is designed purely for protection (unlike some other types of life insurance that have savings and investment components) and there is no 'cash-out' feature. This means that, you won’t get a refund of the premiums you’ve paid. If you paid your premium annually, a refund of premiums for any complete months remaining on your Insurance Policy will be made.

You can cancel your Income Protection Policy by calling us on 1300 766 085 or by writing to:

Policyowner Services
Medibank Life Insurance
Reply Paid 6728
Baulkham Hills NSW 2153

A confirmation of cancellation will be sent to you.