Understanding Personal Accident insurance

Have you thought about what would happen if you were unable to work due to an injury or sickness? Although you must face this possibility when working or running a business, the financial stress that can come with an unexpected injury or sickness may be eased with the right type of insurance.

Personal Accident insurance is designed to help relieve financial pressure if you were to suffer an injury from an accident, or a serious illness which prevents you from being able to work or run your business.

Many Australians have been impacted by the cost of living, but as a business owner, sole trader or independent contractor, you’re especially vulnerable to financial strain if you’re unable to work because your business operations and income may cease. To help protect your business and livelihood against unexpected injury or sickness that prevent you from working, you can consider taking out Individual Personal Accident Insurance. It’s an insurance policy designed to enable you to continue to afford to look after yourself and your family whilst you focus on getting better.

Personal Accident insurance can include the option to:

• Get cover for 24 hours a day/seven days a week or limit your cover to work hours or outside of work hours only.

• Include cover for accidental death, sickness or injury.

• Add cover for business expenses.

• Add sums insured for weekly benefits.

• Adjust the time excess period on the policy.1

In the event of an insured accidental injury, including where you become temporarily or permanently disabled to the extent that you cannot engage in your usual occupation or business duties, Personal Accident policies can help provide a lump sum payment or weekly benefit to help give you the financial support you may need. The lump sum payments under a Personal Accident policy usually pay a fixed amount of money for specified injury or sickness.

Both Personal Accident and Income Protection insurance are intended to help provide financial benefits due to an insured injury or sickness that results in you being unable to work. While it may seem like Personal Accident insurance and Income Protection are very similar policies, there are some differences which are worth understanding.

Differences in cover

Personal Accident insurance may offer the option to include a death component in addition to various other types of insured injuries, while Income Protection on the other hand is intended purely for loss of income because of an insured injury or sickness.

Personal Accident cover is usually a generic policy with standard levels of cover available, whereas Income Protection may offer more flexibility and options under the benefits of the policy and may include a broader definition of sickness and benefits payable.

A Personal Accident policy will only cover you for accidental bodily injury or a sickness up to an agreed benefit period (typically between two to five years), whereas an Income Protection policy may offer more flexibility to tailor the benefit period to your needs. As such, Income Protection typically may be more expensive than a Personal Accident policy.

There may also be a difference in how the benefits are typically paid. Income Protection generally covers your lost income in instalments, rather than lump sum payments. For example, it may cover up to a percentage of your usual income in the event of an injury or illness in instalments. Personal Accident insurance policies on the other hand typically provide lump sum payments or weekly payments for insured accidental injuries, as well as lump sum options if you pass away due to the covered injury in question.

Another difference between the Personal Accident and Income Protection is how they’re issued. Personal Accident policies are underwritten by general insurance companies and are mostly available through insurance brokers or direct purchases. Income Protection on the other hand is usually underwritten by life insurance companies.

Generally, Income Protection policies provide broader coverage and so is expected to be more expensive when compared to a Personal Accident policy with similar sums insured under the weekly benefit or income protection coverage.

Do I need both Personal Accident and Income Protection?

Because both policies cover similar events, it is unlikely you would need to take out both. What’s more, if you did happen to suffer an injury or sickness, it is unlikely you would be able to claim on both policies, as many insurance policies may not cover you for an event if you have already claimed under another policy. That’s why it’s important to ensure you take the time to understand the difference between Income Protection and Personal Accident insurance, and make a decision based on your individual circumstances.

How is Personal Accident different from Workers’ Compensation?

While Personal Accident insurance is designed to protect business owners, sole traders and selfemployed professionals, Workers’ Compensation is intended to protect your employees. Typically, Workers’ Compensation only covers claims involving employees’ work-related injuries whereas Personal Accident policies can include the option to extend the policy beyond your working hours.

It’s important to understand that Workers’ Compensation may not cover you as a business owner (although there are some exceptions) and is not required if you do not have any employees.

Under Australian law, employers must have insurance to cover their workers in case they get sick or injured because of work.² Workers’ Compensation is a type of insurance that can meets these legal requirements.

Everyone’s individual needs and personal circumstances are different, and that’s why it’s important to get the right insurance policy to suit your business needs.

If you would like to know more about Personal Accident Insurance³, you can contact Aon’s insurance specialist team on 1300 836 028.

1. Time excess period means the period of time following an Event giving rise to a claim for which no benefits are payable

2. Work Safe Australia, Workers’ Compensation, https://www. safeworkaustralia.gov.au/workers-compensation

3. Subject to the policy terms, conditions and exclusions.

From Lin Oke, Dianne Tribe and Ralda Bourne

For over 30 years (1960s – 1990s), Wilma Wheatland was the secretary for what was then the Victorian Association of Occupational Therapy (VAOT). She worked 15 hours a week and was a pioneer in working from home, as the third bedroom in her family home in Oakleigh South was the VAOT office.

Over this extensive time frame when the executive committee, of what was then the Australian Occupational Therapy Association (AAOT), was based in Melbourne, Wilma took on extra hours and was also the AAOT secretary at the same time. This was the era when the AAOT was managed by three volunteer members nominated by the state association, as every three years it was rotated between NSW and Victoria and other states at a later stage. AAOT was permanently located in Victoria and purchased their own office after the 1990 World OT Congress, which Australia hosted.

Wilma was a marvel at shorthand, and it was a delight to sit next to her at meetings and watch her create “hieroglyphs” from the discussions and debates around her and then magically type them up into minutes, which were then of course posted out, as it was a non-internet era.

She had a very calm, steady manner about her, and Wilma was able to charm members she telephoned to persuade them on how helpful it would be if they joined a new working party of a specific topic or a committee.

Wilma was regarded as the most professional, confidential and unflappable secretary. She was greatly valued and respected by all who worked with her in the association over the decades.

For her retirement party, the VAOT president Richard Howard created a song for her: ‘We Still Call Wilma at Home’, based on the Peter Allen song ‘I Still Call Australia Home’, because VAOT’s phone number was our lifeline to Wilma and so we did call Wilma at home or left her a message, if after hours on the answering machine, and she would always phone back the next morning.

Farewell Wilma and thank you.

From Professor Angela Berndt and

Susan Gilbert-Hunt

Ms Cecilie Bearup was born on Wattle Day, 1927. Her early life was spent in Melbourne and Sydney and although she was accepted into medicine, she chose to complete a Certificate in Librarianship, finding employment in the library of the Sydney Morning Herald.

In 1946, the family moved to London and Cecilie took up an office job that she did not enjoy. This prompted her to investigate studying occupational therapy, something she had heard about from a friend who was one of the first Sydney graduates.

Cecile was one of 70 students to commence training at the London School in 1949. She loved being a student and did an exchange with Tufts University, Boston. This cemented her interest in America. Following graduation, she spent ten years working in England and USA.

Cecilie returned to Australia with her parents and settled in Adelaide. She was appointed Head OT at Glenside Hospital and founded South Australia’s Aid to the Mentally Ill – a sheltered workshop. There were about seven OTs in Adelaide; they became a close group who successfully lobbied for the establishment of a much-needed School of Occupational Therapy. In 1971, Cecilie was appointed the first Senior Lecturer. She was also instrumental in the establishment of the SA Occupational Therapy Association and State Registration. Her contribution to the profession was recognised in 1982 via the Sylvia Docker Lectureship and in 1985 she was awarded an OAM for services to occupational therapy education and to the community. She was a founding member of the Adelaide Committee of University of the Third Age.

Upon retirement Cecilie completed a Research Master of Arts at Flinders University and was an active artist, regularly exhibiting her work at local venues. Cecilie loved people and Scottie dogs and had many of both in her life.

Professor Esther May, a graduate of the 1978 cohort of OTs, says that Cecilie Bearup was an incredible innovator with a vision of growing occupational therapy in South Australia. She set about advocating for a School of Occupational Therapy in South Australia, won that battle and headed up the inaugural school in with compassion, leadership and a kind and determined attitude. We, who had the pleasure of having Ms Bearup as our leader and mentor, credit her with helping to build our values, skills and capabilities as OTs. She gave all South Australian occupational graduates the beginnings of what has become a solid and empowering profession that we all love so much.

Penelope Audrey Coombes, née Alexander, died on 23 September 2022, a few weeks short of her 82nd birthday. She was a force of nature who saw blue sky through every grey cloud.

After she gained her Diploma in Occupational Therapy, the highest OT qualification then available in Australia, she worked at the Royal Alexandra and the Royal North Shore hospitals before winning a US Fulbright postgraduate scholarship. In 1967, this took her to the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Centre, a Californian teaching hospital for the Harvard Medical School, where the complex needs of Vietnam war-wounded veterans were forging a change of scope and new OT solutions.

Back in Sydney in 1968, Penny became head of the OT Department at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, leading to major changes for patients, training and research. In 1974 Penny was appointed the Foundation Head of the School of Occupational Therapy at Cumberland College of Health Sciences (now part of Sydney University) and oversaw the introduction of the first Occupational Therapy degree course in NSW. The new curriculum was imaginative, broadening the scope of OT, giving it relevance across many disciplines.

Penny used a WHO Fellowship in 1976 to study medical decision-making at Michigan State University, the WHO invited her to establish OT training in Hong Kong, and in her ‘spare time’ she commenced studying for a Master’s Degree, which she was awarded by the University of NSW in 1981.

After Penny and her husband Warwick moved to an apartment in Sydney’s city centre she established a consultancy, The People for Places and Spaces (PPS) in 1983. PPS would advise planners on how to successfully revitalise public spaces through dialogue with those who lived, worked and visited there.

Penny’s friends and colleagues remember her effervescent vision and her ability to find the best in people. Penny is survived by Warwick, brothers Peter and Tim and sister, Victoria, and their families, and by a cavalcade of dear colleagues and friends.