Financial Hardship Policy
General Insurance
Zurich is committed to supporting and providing practical assistance to customers who are facing financial hardship.
Financial Hardship refers to a circumstance where the individual has or may have difficulty meeting their financial obligations to us.
Financial Hardship may be due to (but not limited to) a death of a family member, injury, illness, involuntary unemployment, change in personal circumstances or a natural disaster.
Life is unpredictable – change can come our way whether we’re prepared for it or not.
If you’re a Zurich customer, going through financial hardship and having difficulty meeting your financial obligations to us, we can work with you to come up with a solution that’s tailored to your needs.
This can include issuing an advanced claims payment, within 5 business days of demonstrating your hardship, or offering flexibility in relation to amounts that are owed to us.
Here’s what we’ll do to support you:
- Help you to apply for Financial Hardship support.
- Provide contact details for the National Debt Helpline: 1800 007 007 for those that need it.
- Keep you or your representative updated using your preferred contact method (where possible).
- Review the evidence you provide and let you know if we need more. You’ll have 21 days to send it.
- Pause recovery action while we assess your application.
- Inform you of the outcome within 21 days of receiving all required information.
- If you’re declaring bankruptcy, we’ll work with you to agree on the amount owed.
- If we waive or discharge a debt, we’ll confirm it in writing and notify other financial institutions when you request us to.
- Share our complaints process if you’re unhappy with our decision.
Need Urgent Financial Assistance
If you are in urgent need of your insurance policy benefits or flexible financial support options:
Contact Us
By phone:
By email:
Write to us at:
PO Box 677, North Sydney NSW 2059
Working with you at claim time
If we need to ask you for money because of damage or loss that you caused, the Complaints Resolution process will apply to you too. When we first communicate with you about any money owed, we will provide you with information:
To show that the amount we are seeking is fair and reasonable
About our Financial Hardship process
About how to contact us in case you have any questions or need urgent assistance
These Financial Hardship provisions also apply to any Collection Agent or Solicitor collecting money for us.
Flexibility
There may be circumstances (such as a Natural disaster) which might mean you may not be able to provide the required documentation or may be impacted financially by the events.
Zurich will apply a practical approach to assist you during this time and as early as possible we will take actions that are appropriate to your situation, such as:
- Prioritising financial hardship support requests.
- Being flexible with requests for information.
- Where appropriate, referring you to specialist external financial hardship services.
- Enabling authorised people to act on your behalf (including a lawyer, family member, carer, interpreter or friend) to make a Financial Hardship request.
- Recording the support provided to you, and any information agreed with you such as communication preferences and security measures, which you can access as per our privacy policy.
Our priority is to provide options which suit your unique needs, while being fair, sensitive & timely in how we support you.
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:
Email:
Letter:
PO Box 677, North Sydney NSW 2059
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 24 hours or as soon as practicable. In a number of circumstances where you don't require a written response, we will resolve your complaint within 5 business days.
Where we are unable to resolve your complaint in that way, we will respond in writing to your complaint within 15 business days if we have all the information required. If we cannot meet this timeframe because additional information or investigation is required, we will notify you within those 15 business days and seek to agree an alternative timeframe with you. We will keep you informed of the progress of your complaint at least every 10 business days unless otherwise agreed.
If you are not satisfied with our response or we cannot agree an alternative timeframe, you may have the matter reviewed through our internal complaint review process, which is free of charge. If you request your complaint to be reviewed and we have all the information required, we will respond in writing within 15 business days. If we cannot meet this timeframe because additional information or investigation is required, we will notify you within those 15 business days and seek to agree an alternative timeframe with you. We will keep you informed of the progress of your complaint at least every 10 business days and in any event, we will provide our final response to you no later than 30 calendar days after receiving the complaint.
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 132 687 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 Code of Practice, please read the Code which is available on www.codeofpractice.com.au
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BNON-023504-2025