Group income protection providers have made significant progress since the launch of the Fit for Work service, according to Jelf.
Steve Herbert, head of benefits strategy for Jelf Employee Benefits, stated the free government service - providing an occupational health assessment and health advice to both employers and employees - will help draw attention to the importance of early intervention in managing absence.
“The more such topics are widely discussed by both the media and the industry, the better for the employer and the end-user,” he said.
The service aims to fill the current gap in support by benefiting employers who currently have limited in-house occupational health services.
FTAdviser published a guide to obtaining the best group income protection in February last year.
Mr Herbert argued that Fit for Work’s long-awaited launch in 2014 acted as a catalyst for changes in the insurance industry last year, with group protection providers now trying to show employers the value of using early intervention services.
He predicted that 2016 will see a further strengthening of this effort, as insurers seek to show that group cover provides a “more robust and complete solution to absence management” than state funded alternatives.
Paul Avis, marketing director at Canada Life Group Insurance, agreed that the good news about the Fit for Work service is it gives providers an opportunity to promote the additional services of group income insurers.
“However, anyone who is aware of the Seven Families initiative will know many absences cannot be resolved with a one-off tax repayment of £500.”
Mr Avis pointed out that one of the worries of the Fit to Work service was that it took over six years to implement and was scaled back by a third. “The complexity of individual circumstances means the Fit for Work service is no replacement for the kind of full vocational rehabilitation available from group risk insurers,” he added.
Roy McLoughlin, an independent financial adviser at London-based Master Adviser, said a key benefit of the Fit for Work initiative is it gets people talking.
“This is a subject people don’t really want to talk about,” he said, suggesting that in a similar way to auto-enrolment, Fit for Work has changed the public consciousness, with business owners becoming more aware that they need to take group protection into account themselves.
“This is opening doors that have never been opened before,” Mr Mcloughlin added. “There is a big opportunity here to increase the GIP market too, which has remained pretty static for a good number of years.
“By raising the consciousness of the subject, it makes people talk about it and look for advice.”
katherine.denham@ft.com
