Domestic and Family Violence Policy
This policy explains how Zurich supports customers affected by family violence.
We aim to reduce the impact on you by offering support and practical help.
What do we mean by domestic and family violence?
“Violent, threatening or other behaviour by a person that coerces or controls a member of the person’s family or causes the family member to be fearful”. This is consistent with the definition of the Family Law Act 1975.
Domestic & family violence isn’t just physical. It can also include:
- Emotional or psychological abuse
- Financial or economic control
- Sexual abuse
- Threats of harm to people or pets
- Damage to property
Zurich’s priorities when supporting customers affected by domestic and family violence are:
- The fair and sensitive treatment of customers affected by family violence, ensuring they are treated with dignity and respect.
- Safety of the customer and their family.
- The provision of support and training to our staff who are dealing with, or may deal with, sensitive cases, including customers affected by family violence.
We’re here to help if you’re affected by domestic or family violence, and here’s what we will do:
- We’ll give you extra care and support when providing insurance, advice, or investment services.
- You won’t need to provide evidence to access our family violence policy. If you tell us you’re affected, we’ll treat you with dignity, respect and with regard to your safety.
- We’ll keep your information confidential and treat it as sensitive, and with your consent add a flag on our system to further protect your privacy and security.
- We’ll work with you to agree on safe ways to communicate and make a note of these methods in your file.
- If needed, we’ll involve your financial counsellor, lawyer, community service social worker, legal aid officer, or family violence specialist in our communications.
- We’ll minimise the information you need to provide and avoid asking you to repeat the same details, especially if you don’t have access to your personal records.
- We’ll provide you options for identification where this might be difficult for you, where possible in line with Austrac verification guidance.
- Where possible, we’ll make sure you speak to the same staff member or we’ll provide another trained staff member to help you.
- We’ll ask about your financial situation to see if you’re also facing financial hardship and provide options, we might be able to help you with financially.
- If appropriate, we’ll refer you to external family violence and financial hardship services.
- We’ll train our staff with role-specific skills in identifying and supporting vulnerable customers, including family violence training, and refresh training annually.
- We’ll appoint a specialist trained staff member to assist you if needed.
- We provide support for our staff affected by family violence or those dealing with vulnerable customers through our employee assistance line, management discussions, training, and resource documents.
- We’ll provide you with a copy of our public Family Violence Policy whenever you ask for one.
- Where domestic or family violence is a factor in a debt owed to Zurich, we’ll not refer that debt to a collector, or if it is already referred we’ll work with the collector to seek the best outcome for you.
Support at claim time
If you tell us, or we identify that you are affected by domestic or family violence, we will:
- Prioritise the assessment of the claim and fast track any financial hardship support where needed.
- Where possible consider making an advance claims payment.
- Confirm the outcome in writing within 5 business days of the hardship being demonstrated.
- Where the policy is Jointly owned, consider requests from you without consent of the other policy holder.
- If you have a Group Life Insurance Policy, we will let you know who you need to contact for urgent assistance.
Further Assistance
If you require professional financial help, please refer to our Vulnerable Customers page for government and community organisations which offer free counselling services and resources.
If English isn’t your first language, or if you need help reading or understanding information, simply contact the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 and ask them to contact us on your behalf.
We can also arrange an interpreter to assist in our communications or provide information in different formats to make things easier for you.
Complaints resolution process
If you have a complaint about our products, services, staff or our handling of a complaint, please contact us, free of charge, by:
Phone:
Life and Investments
131 551
Zurich Assure
1800 161 168
General Insurance
132 687
International callers
+61 2 9995 3777
Mail:
118 Mount Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
We are committed to customer service and to putting our customers and their needs first. This includes knowing when you are not satisfied with our products or with the information, service or a response that we have provided, and taking the opportunity to make things right. Zurich has internal dispute resolution procedures in place for resolving complaints, which is a free service to you and your representatives.
Zurich will confirm that your complaint has been received within 1 business day (or as soon as practicable) and work to provide an outcome as quickly as possible.
Where appropriate we will refer you to our Dispute Resolution Team who will undertake further investigations. We will give you a dedicated contact person who will keep you regularly updated with progress and discuss options with you to resolve your complaint.
Once we have come to a decision on the outcome of your complaint, we will communicate this with you. In most cases we will then provide the outcome of your complaint in writing. Our complaints decision will usually be provided within 30 calendar days where your complaint relates to a life insurance policy, or financial advice provided by Zurich Assure. If your complaint relates to a superannuation product a decision will be provided, in most instances, no later than 45 calendar days from when we receive it. Where we cannot resolve your complaint within this timeframe we will advise you in writing.
Customers needing additional help
We understand some people need help to make a complaint and so you are able to ask someone to speak with us on your behalf, such as a relative, friend or legal representative, where we have your consent.
Zurich will also provide additional assistance to those who require help to understand their policy or lodge a complaint. This might include older persons, individuals experiencing financial hardship, managing a disability or mental health condition, individuals experiencing family violence or those that are from a non-English speaking background or indigenous community.
Zurich will take steps to ensure that all customers are provided with the service they need and will work with you or your representative to identify how best to provide support.
Should you require additional assistance, please contact us on 131 551 so we can provide the necessary support to help you manage your complaint.
Hearing and speech impaired customers can contact Zurich via the National Relay Service on 1300 555 727.
Customers requiring translation assistance can contact the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 and request they contact us on your behalf.
Australian Financial Complaints Authority
We subscribe to the independent external dispute resolution scheme administered by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which is available to customers and third parties who fall within the AFCA Complaint Resolution Scheme Rules.
If our decision on your Complaint does not resolve your Complaint to your satisfaction, or if we do not resolve your Complaint within 30 calendar days of the date we first received your Complaint, you may refer your Complaint to AFCA.
If you wish to do so, you should refer your matter to AFCA as early as possible, as time limits can apply. If AFCA advises you that AFCA cannot assist you, you can seek independent legal advice or access any other external dispute resolution options that may be available to you, for example by contacting the Department of Fair Trading, your Solicitor or Local Court as you may be able to have the matter resolved by:
- Small Claims Court or Tribunals
- Formal legal proceedings out of the District or Supreme Counts
Contact details for AFCA
Online: www.afca.org.au
Email: info@afca.org.au
Mail: Australian Financial Complaints Authority GPO Box 3 Melbourne VIC 3001
Phone: 1800 931 678
For full details of the General Insurance and Life Insurance Code of Practice, please read the Code which is available on:
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Zurich Assure Australia Pty Limited ABN 58 657 804 736 AFSL 538863
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