Can I work after my TPD claim has been accepted?

The majority of TPD policies require that you must stop working due to illness or injury and be permanently unable to work within your “education, training or experience”. This is a very important phrase to understand. Put briefly, it describes work that you can do without having to be retrained or without further education. Accordingly, if you have stopped work in your current field because of illness or injury and you can’t do any other job without retraining or further education, you may be able to make a successful TPD claim. For example, a boilermaker who is no longer able to work in that capacity (for example, conducting welding work on a mine site)but can return to work as a site workplace health and safety advisor after conducting retraining may still be entitled to a TPD benefit.

Again, every insurer and every policy is different. Your individual circumstances will be important. Generally:

• you must cease work entirely for at least the waiting period set out in the TPD policy, and
• while there is no hard and fast rule, retraining or further education will generally involve at least an AQF certificate. Courts have upheld insurers’ decisions to refuse TPD claims on the basis that a person was not temporarily or permanently disabled because they were able to work in a different role without ‘significant’ additional retraining or further education, or that they can return to work in a new area based on their ‘transferrable skills’.

We understand that if you cannot work in your chosen occupation, being told by your insurer that you may be ineligible for TPD insurance because they think that you that you could work in an unfamiliar field can be daunting. Let Littles help. We are TPD experts, and can assist if your insurer has rejected or is delaying your claim, and provide advice on all of the options available to you.