Insurance Rules Explained

Under the Putting Members' Interests First legislation (PMIF) the government has introduced new rules to help young people and those with low account balances by removing insurance cover which can erode or prevent your super balance from growing. From 1 April 2020 Virgin Money Super is not, by law, able to automatically provide insurance cover to anyone under the age of 25 and/or with a balance of $6,000 or less.

This legislation is in addition to the Protecting Your Super Package (PYS) legislation introduced by the government on the 1 July 2019, designed to protect member’s super savings from unnecessary fees and insurance premiums on inactive low-balance accounts.

How we apply the rules:

New Customers: Anyone under the age of 25 and/or has a balance of less than $6,000 will not be given Automatic Insurance at the time you join the fund. At the time you turn 25 and your balance reaches $6,000 or more, your insurance will automatically kick in and premiums will begin to be deducted from your account.

But don’t worry insurance is still available if you want it. If you are under 25/or your balance is less than $6,000, you can simply opt in for insurance with Virgin Money Super via the online form. Premiums will then start to be deducted from the time your first contribution is made to your account. Premiums will then start to be deducted from the time your first contribution is made to your account. New customers have 60 days from their date of join to make an election to opt-in to insurance and received contribution. Customer who have opted in will receive ‘New Events’ cover for 12 months. After 12 months, your cover will be converted to full cover provided you have been ‘At Work’ for 30 consecutive days, on or after the expiry of the 12 months. If you were not ‘At Work’ at the time your cover is expected to be converted, your cover will remain as ‘New Events’ until you have worked 30 consecutive days.

Existing customers: Anyone who, as at 1 April 2020, had super ofr less than $6,000, will have had their insurance automatically cancelled At this time we were required by law to cancel your insurance, and insurance premiums will have stop being deducted from your super balance with Virgin Money Super.

The Protecting Your Super legislation (or PYS) requires that if you have not put any money into your account, for example through your employer contributions or rolling over from another fund for a period of 16 months your insurance cover will be cancelled.

How we apply the rules:

When we see that you have not put any money into your super account we will cancel your insurance cover and stop deducting insurance premiums from your super balance. Before this happens, you will receive a notice from us prior to cancellation where you can opt in to insurance.

If you have more than one super account it is important you assess your insurance needs and requirements across all options. When cancelling your insurance, we make our assessment based on the balance and transaction history seen in your Virgin Money Super account. Why not take some time today to work out what you have and what you might need.