Insurance
Insurance can help you to protect your current lifestyle and help your family in the event of injury or death.
Use this are to find out about.
A quick overview
As a PSS contributing member, you receive automatic permanent invalidity or death cover at no extra cost to you. You're covered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
You're covered for a benefit based on your entitlement had you worked to age 60*.
Some members may have the option to increase their death and invalidity cover . Your employer will pay half the costs of the standard premium for the additional insurance.
* Limited Benefit Members (LBM) accrue benefits only up to the date of retirement or death (that is, no future service is taken into account). If you are an LBM it will be shown on your Member Statement.
Full Benefits Membership
Full benefits members are members who have completed their CMAPS and have been assessed as being sufficiently healthy to carry out their duties without taking excessive sick leave in the first three years of joining the PSS.
In the event of permanent invalidity you will be paid an invalidity benefit that is based on the lump sum you would have received if you had worked to the age of 60. This can be taken as a pension or a combination of pension and lump sum.
In the event of your death the benefit payable to your eligible spouse and/or dependants will be a percentage of the pension that would have been paid to you had you retired on invalidity grounds.
Limited Benefits Membership
If you do not complete a CMAPS form or your CMAPS discloses conditions that you may take excessive sick leave during the first three years of membership, you may be classified as a Limited Benefits Member (LBM).
Being classified as a LBM means that, in the event of invalidity or death, your benefit will be payable as a lump sum and calculated only up to the date of exit, that is, no future service is taken into account.
After three years of membership, you are entitled to full benefits membership , regardless of your medical situation.
Medical Assessment (CMAPS)
We need to know your health history and whether there is a possibility of medical problems that may affect your employment or claims on the PSS within the first three years of membership.
New members must complete a questionnaire, called the CONFIDENTIAL MEDICAL AND PERSONAL STATEMENT (CMAPS), and lodge it with their personnel section within 14 days of starting membership. A medical assessment must be made for all members entering the PSS, regardless of prior membership. If, after examining your CMAPS you are assessed, in terms of the PSS Rules, to be sufficiently healthy to carry out your duties without taking excessive sick leave within three years of joining the PSS, you will be classified a full benefits member.
Pre-existing medical conditions
You may also be classified as a limited benefits member if you complete a CMAPS form and the Trustees assess that any pre-existing medical condition may require you take excessive sick leave in the first three years of employment. But you can ask ARIA to reconsider your limited benefit status if you consider you are in good health.
Additional death and invalidity cover
If you are a contributing member of the PSS, you can apply for additional death and invalidity cover as long as any additional cover doesn't exceed your potential maximum benefit limit – a multiple of your Final Average Salary.
In addition, any applications made for additional cover are subject to the standard requirements and conditions of AIA Group Insurance.
How much does it cost and how much cover can I get?
Generally you will pay half of the standard premium and your employer will pay the other half.
The maximum amount of cover you can get depends on your age when you take out the cover. The earlier you joined the Scheme the more cover you can take out but you are limited to a multiple of your Final Average Salary.
For more information see the facts about additional death and invalidity cover or the PSS Super Book.
