Group income Protection - Early Intervention Services

Group Income Protection (GIP) offers benefits for the policyholder’s organisation and its employees. Fundamentally, it provides a level of salary continuation when an employee is absent through ill health or disablement. The additional benefit most aligned to financial protection is access to rehabilitation services.

The cost of sickness absence is often high up the list of organisational concerns for an employer, so early involvement in absence to maximise rehabilitation support is sensible and prudent. Although GIP benefits become payable during long term disability, the payment only starts after the employee has been absent for a set period, commonly 28 weeks. For the first 28 weeks the employer funds Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), so managing sickness absence by active engagement makes perfect sense from a financial and philanthropic viewpoint.

Employers may not have the resources or expertise to manage the absence effectively, so the GIP provider is ideally placed to support the early investigation of absence, helping the employer and their employee at this difficult time.

Canada Life’s Claims Management Services team focuses on the fact that every absence can have a huge impact on the workplace and recognises the importance of supporting employees as early as possible. This support includes unlimited access to our in-house, medically qualified rehabilitation consultants (RC). Where possible, our RCs engage with employers and their employees after just a couple of weeks of absence. This is known as early intervention. The aim is to manage employee absence effectively and find the best outcome for all involved, which in many cases is a speedy return to work.