Construction and Building Unions Superannuation (Cbus), established in 1984 for mainly construction workers have become one of the biggest Australian superannuation funds with more than 850,000 members. The company actively manages over $70 billion in funding money as of July 2022.
In 2020/2021, Cbus accepted 2,477 claims and paid out $258 million for its members.
What does Cbus super insurance offer?
Cbus super insurance mainly provides 3 options that are as follows:
Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) cover
Cbus TPD cover can provide you with a lump sum payout benefit if you become unlikely to ever work again an occupation that you are suited to by education, training or experience. That is important because you may not know that you could be eligible to make a successful TPD claim even if you could technically work in any occupation. However, that is dependent on other circumstances such as whether you were employed at the time of the illness or injury and/or whether you ceased work due to an illness or injury as well as other factors.
Our TPD Lawyers are trained to obtain your relevant information, contact CBUS to obtain the policy that applies specifically to you and then provide our opinion on your eligibility to make a successful TPD claim and proceed from there.
Income Protection cover
Cbus Income Protection cover provides monthly income support if you can’t work because of an accident or illness
Death insurance cover
Cbus death cover provides death benefits if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness or in case of death.
Cbus Super Insurance eligibility
To make a successful TPD claim with CBUS, you must first have been a member with Cbus and had active TPD Insurance cover at the date of disablement and/or date you last worked. Additionally, you must satisfy the relevant policy definitions, terms, and conditions.
Each member and circumstance is unique and as such this guide is an attempt to provide as much general information as possible to help you. A main general eligibility criteria is that to be eligible you also need to be unable to work because of an illness or injury for a minimum of three consecutive months before you make your TPD claim. However, if you have a specified medical condition that is assessed by a medical practitioner, the insurer will assess your TPD claim without a waiting period. There are many medical conditions that exclude you from the above and as such we recommend you contact our TPD Lawyers to see if your medical condition applies here.
How to make a Cbus super claim?
Depending on your case and policy, you may be entitled to Income Protection, TPD or Death benefits. You can directly reach our TPD or superannuation lawyers for a free claim. Generally, the process is to see whether your circumstances apply to your policy and eligibility criteria. If it does then you will need to obtain evidence to support your claim that you meet the criteria.
Obtaining evidence is important because your employment circumstances meeting certain criteria in your TPD policy based on your employment circumstances is one thing and obtaining medical evidence in support of that criteria is another thing You generally need to provide::
- medical evidence about your condition from your treating doctors
- medical reports, test results, and other medical evidence
- your passport or certified copy of your driver’s licence
- evidence of education, training and experience
- employment evidence as to the details of your termination or cessation of employment financial evidence such as payslips, tax returns etc.
Making a strong claim will save you time and effort in the future.
Upon lodgement of a TPD claim, the insurer will review the case and can accept, defer or decline your claim.
Accept
After your claim is accepted, you will receive a decision about the terms of acceptance, tax and options for payment such as whether you seek to:
- keep the whole amount paid into your bank account
- keep some or all of the payments in your Cbus account
- transfer some or all of the payment to a Cbus Super Income Stream account or another approved super fund.
Defer
If the insurer defers your claim, it means more time is needed to determine whether you are permanently disabled or not. Deferring may occur if you need to undergo surgery, or if your doctor assumes that your medical condition can improve soon or your condition is likely to improve over time with treatment. They’ll review your claim again at the end of this period.
Decline
You will get a written explanation if your claim is declined. Although we recommend you contact our TPD lawyers prior to making a TPD claim to increase your chances of making a successful TPD claim, if your Cbus superannuation claim is denied, contact our TPD lawyers for advice.
Cbus claim processing time
There’s no fixed time for superannuation claims which the insurance companies, including Cbus, must strictly follow. Generally, TPD claims decisions are made within a year after a successful lodgement.
Issa Rabaya
• Bachelor of Laws
• Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice
• Approved Legal Service Provider to the Work Cover Independent Review Office
• Member of the Law Society
