TAL Domestic and Family Violence Support Policy

If there is an immediate threat to you or your family, please call emergency services on 000.

At TAL, we are committed to supporting customers who are affected by domestic and family violence to the best of our ability. If this applies to you, and you are seeking information on what to do next, please visit our Domestic and Family Violence support page.

Our Domestic and Family Violence Support Policy applies to all customers, including those who hold or are covered under a TAL policy, as well as those who have made an application. This policy has been developed to promote the safety of our customers and outlines the ways we can assist affected customers.

Understanding domestic and family violence

Domestic and family violence can affect anyone.

Family violence involves violent, threatening or other behaviour that coerces or controls a member of the person’s family or causes the family member to be fearful. Domestic violence involves behaviour within an intimate relationship (including current or past marriages, domestic partnerships or dates) that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm.

Financial abuse is a form of family violence that negatively impacts a person financially. It is about power, control, and manipulation, often occurring alongside other forms of violence such as physical violence and intimidation. Financial abuse is generally long-term and may continue after an individual has left an abusive partner. More information about financial abuse is available on our website.

Coercive control, a key aspect of family and domestic violence, involves sustained abusive behaviours (which may be physical or non-physical) to instil fear and limit autonomy.

Our commitment and priorities

We make the following commitments:

• We will always treat our customers with empathy, respect, and understanding.
• We will treat all information a customer discloses to us about domestic and family violence as sensitive and confidential.
• We will train our relevant staff on how to support customers who are affected by domestic and family violence.
• We will offer support to any TAL staff member who we are aware is affected by family violence, such as by offering to refer them to support services, additional leave, and flexible working arrangements. The same support will be offered to TAL staff who are vicariously impacted by domestic and family violence. 
• We will work with industry bodies and consumer groups to continue to refine our approach to supporting customers affected by family violence.
• We endorse the Council of Australian Life Insurers' Best Practice Guidance on considering domestic and family violence in product design and are exploring how we can implement this guidance. We are currently examining how our new product development and review processes can be updated to include an assessment of the risk of our products and services being weaponised by a perpetrator of domestic and family violence.
• We will not request evidence of an intervention order to enable access to support options available to customers affected by domestic and family violence.

For customers experiencing domestic and family violence, we will:

• Provide financial relief options to eligible customers suffering financial hardship or in urgent financial need, as outlined in our Financial Hardship Policy.
• Offer to refer customers to external support services.
• Look for ways that we can be flexible in our approach to assessing claims, and provide additional support for claimants during the claims process, including reasonable alternative methods to substantiate claims.
• Refer them to emergency services if there is an immediate threat of harm.

Objectives of the Domestic and Family Violence Support Policy

Our Domestic and Family Violence Support Policy outlines the ways we can assist customers affected by domestic and family violence. The ways in which we will seek to do this are outlined below:

• Making sure that safety is paramount for anyone affected by domestic and family violence
• Training employees to recognise signs of domestic and family violence, even if the customer does not disclose this information
• Training employees to respond to customers affected by domestic and family violence, including safety and support options
• Protecting private and confidential information of customers affected by domestic and family violence
• Minimising the number of times a customer needs to disclose information about domestic and family violence
• Supporting claimants affected by domestic and family violence
• Providing customers and employees with information about domestic and family violence about the assistance available
• Supporting employees who are affected by domestic and family violence, and employees who experience vicarious trauma

Protecting private and confidential information of customers affected by domestic and family violence

We recognise that safety is a paramount concern for anyone affected by domestic and family violence.

If we believe there is an immediate threat to the safety of a customer or their family, we will refer them to emergency services. If the circumstances require, we may notify the emergency services directly.  

Unless notifying emergency services, we will only share a customer's disclosure of domestic and family violence with parties they have consented to. We will take care to ensure a customer’s contact details and address are not shared with parties they have told us they don’t to share it with, even if those parties are also policy owners or insured under the same policy.

We may refer customers affected by domestic and family violence to specialist external support services, but will only share their contact details with consent.

We will discuss safe ways to communicate with a customer who is affected by domestic and family violence and record these methods on their file — for example, this may include asking them:

• Which methods of contact are safe or unsafe;
• Whether it is a good time to talk;
• If it is safe to leave phone messages;
• If there is a suitable or safer day or time to talk;
• Whether correspondence needs to also be sent to a different address,
• Whether copies of insurance documents are required; and
• Whether there is a nominated support person

If a customer wishes to appoint a support person, we will take steps to make this as easy as possible.

Minimising the number of times a customer needs to disclose information about domestic and family violence

If a customer tells us that they have been affected by domestic and family violence, we will take steps to ensure that the information they provide, as well as their communication requests and safety requirements, including safe ways of contacting them, is recorded against each of their policies and customer records.

Whenever possible, the same person who received the disclosure of domestic and family violence will follow up with the customer.

Informing customers, and employees about the support options available to customers experiencing domestic and family violence

We will inform customers of this Policy and the list of specialist support services, both of which are available on our website. Our website contains further support services, such as fact sheets, online resources and links to relevant tools.

We will offer support relevant to each customer’s situation, to the extent that we are able to. Customers may be provided policy details or other insurance records without charge if required and provided information on seeking support from a support person or counsellor.

Our customer-facing employees will be trained in:

• recognising when a customer may be affected by domestic and family violence;
• responding appropriately to a disclose of family and domestic violence;
• maintaining the confidentiality of information disclosed by a customer about family and domestic violence; and
• providing assistance to customers affected by domestic and family violence. This includes the support options and safety measures available through TAL, such as our Financial Hardship Policy, and the external specialist support services that customers can be referred to when appropriate.

Our training for employees and information for customers will be updated regularly.

Support for claimants affected by domestic and family violence

We will handle claims with sensitivity, flexibility and care.

We recognise that customers who are affected by domestic and family violence may face difficulties in making a claim. We will look for ways that we can help overcome these difficulties, including by providing additional support and being flexible in our approach to assessing claims, which may include providing reasonable alternative methods to substantiate claims.

We also recognise that customers who are affected by domestic and family violence may urgently need access to the benefits of their life insurance policy. If you tell us (or we identify) that you urgently need access to your benefits, we will confirm how we can help in writing.

Where we are aware that a claim on a policy has resulted from domestic and family violence, and the perpetrator of that violence is the beneficiary, we will consider whether the forfeiture rule may apply and whether it would be appropriate to pay the benefit into the Court.

Collections and domestic and family violence

We do not use external debt collections services to enforce or seek outstanding premium amounts. We have processes to contact our customers in relation to outstanding premiums before their policy is cancelled due to non-payment of the premium and can offer options that may assist customers to retain cover if they choose.

Financial hardship

We recognise that domestic and family violence can result in financial hardship.

We will ensure that all TAL staff whose roles involve interacting directly with customers are aware of our Domestic and Family Violence Support Policy and Financial Hardship Policy, including the financial hardship support options that are available for our customers.

If a customer tells us (or we identify) that they are experiencing financial hardship due to domestic and family violence, we will let them know about and help them to access our financial hardship support options.  

Customer complaints procedure

Complaints about our compliance with this Policy can be raised using our customer complaints procedure. How to make a complaint, as well as our Complaints Policy, can be found on our website.

We will take family and domestic family violence and financial abuse into account when assessing and prioritising complaints.

Policy review

TAL will regularly monitor this Policy and associated guidelines, with the objective of ensuring that it remains effective in supporting customers, relevant and aligned with regulatory obligations, the Life Insurance Code of Practice, and industry body guidance, such as the CALI Best Practice Guidance.

Associated procedures will also be reviewed regularly and updated as appropriate.