Coronavirus (COVID-19)

• Keeping our business running
• Underwriting
• Claims
• Helping customers in financial difficulty

Keeping our business running

The health and safety of our colleagues and customers is always our top priority and we’re following all safety advice and precautions as recommended by the government.

Working remotely

We continue to advise all our staff who have the capability to do so to work from home. Our systems are enabled to facilitate this and are running smoothly. Our goal is to help minimise the spread of the virus by reducing contact as much as possible while ensuring we continue to operate sustainably and securely as a business.

We aim to minimise impact on our core business operations and we're working hard to continue to deliver the very best possible service to you and your clients. So far our service is holding up really well and we've maintained our service standards. We’ll continue to be contactable as normal through phone and email, and new business applications will continue to be processed. We have a fully signature-free online application process for new business and where possible we’ll use e-signatures for trusts and AMRAs.

Support for you

We’ve advised all our staff to limit non-essential travel in line with government guidance. But you’ll continue to receive the high quality of service you’re used to through your Royal London sales contact. They’ll be in touch with you over phone and email.

You can also contact your named case managers about any of your cases and will continue to have direct access to our underwriters.

And we've got some practical hints, tips and tools to help you keep your business on track during this difficult time.

Our third parties

We work with several third parties to provide our Helping Hand support service.

The nurse advisory service is provided by RedArc. We’re in regular contact with them and they’ve advised us that all their employees are now working from home with secure remote access to their systems. Due to the nature of this service, safeguarding of their employees and patients is a high priority and they’ve assured us that their processes have been adapted accordingly. Clients should contact the NHS 111 service if they are displaying symptoms of Coronavirus. However, RedArc can help with concerns relating to the impact of the virus on other long-term health conditions or continuing ill health following Coronavirus.

Our legal service is provided by Epoq. Due to higher than normal levels of calls to the helpline, your clients might experience a delay in response of up to 24 hours.

Underwriting

We're working hard in these unprecedented times to offer cover to as many of your customers as possible.
We’ve set out below our current underwriting approach, which builds upon the underwriting changes we made on the 16 April 2020.

Unless otherwise stated these changes apply to:

- all new applications
- any applications that are still in our pipeline where we have not issued an acceptance letter
- any case where terms have expired or that need a further underwriting assessment

As with all changes implemented as a result of Coronavirus, we will continue to closely monitor this situation and make any further changes as required.

Coronavirus application questions

From 1 October our Coronavirus question was updated to ask if the customer has:

• tested positive for Coronavirus
• been advised to self-isolate
• a new continuous cough and/or a high temperature
• a loss or change to the sense of taste or smell.

We would only expect someone to select ‘tested positive’ if they’ve had a positive coronavirus swab test taken from their nose or throat.

If a customer has a history of any of these in the last month, we’ll postpone offering cover.

Customers should only answer that they’re self-isolating if:

• medical staff have specifically advised them to do so
• they're self-isolating due to symptoms they have or have tested positive for Coronavirus
• they're following guidance due to being in direct contact with someone who has symptoms or someone who has tested positive for the Coronavirus antigen (e.g. household isolation, or contact tracing initiatives)
• they're following guidance having recently returned from an affected area

If they’re working from home or are following general advice to avoid social interactions, they should not consider themselves as self-isolating.

Customers who have received a letter advising them to shield or who are in the clinically extremely vulnerable group, but haven't been advised to self-isolate due to any of the reasons listed above, don't have to answer that they are self-isolating.

Where we postpone cover due to symptoms, self-isolation advice, or a positive test, the postponement period will usually last a minimum of one month. However in certain circumstances we may be able to offer cover sooner. For example if the customer self-isolated following travel or due to being advised to do so by a contact tracer, we can consider offering cover when the customer has had a negative Coronavirus test, or they have completed their advised self-isolation period and they remain symptom free. There are other circumstances where we may also be able to review the postponement period. Please contact your underwriter to check any specific scenario.

Medical screenings

We're currently able to request face-to-face nurse and doctor medical screenings as needed for protection applicants.

However, some nurses may be asked to help with the Coronavirus vaccination programme so there could be a reduction in their capacity to carry out appointments. Spikes in infection rates and local lockdowns may also be factors that impact the availability of exams.

The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our utmost priority. Our third party medical screening partners have designed processes to recommence these examinations with safety controls to ensure they can be carried out in a way that minimises the risk to customers. These include the mandatory use of personal protection equipment, single use equipment wherever possible, and all repeatedly used equipment (e.g. iPads) to be disinfected before every appointment.

Not all customers may wish to have a face-to-face exam, for example if they or a member of their household have a medical condition that puts them at high risk from Coronavirus

If the exam cannot proceed for any reason we will contact you to discuss alternatives. For example we may be able to offer a virtual medical exam as an alternative in certain circumstances.

The virtual medical solution will be carried out by Medicals Direct Group (MDG) and consists of;

• a nurse conducting a tele-screening examination over the phone, and
• a self-check instant blood test for Cholesterol and Glucose.

Virtual medical examinations will only be available if:

• The customer is under the age of 60
• The evidence is required for non-medical limits only. e.g.  A virtual medical cannot be used to replace a Paramed that we have requested for other reasons, such as BMI or hypertension.

The sum assured limits are:

In most circumstances the face to face medical will remain the default evidence request. But we’ll use the virtual medical as an alternative when a face to face Paramed cannot be completed.

Non-medical limits (NMLs)

For Life Cover, we’ve increased our NMLs by 10% for people under age 60, rounded up to the nearest £25,000.

This will reduce the number of applications that need medical evidence and help your customers get some protection, without delay.

For cases that need evidence due to routine medical limits, nurse screenings are the default first tier of non-medical limits. If a screening isn't available we may still ask for a virtual medical exam or GPR as an alternative.

NT-proBNP – replacement for exercise ECG

An exercise ECG is currently one of the evidence requirements we use for non-medical limits. We request these on customers who are over age 50, for certain sums assured.

For Life Cover if an ECG is unable to be completed we may be able to use a blood test called NT-proBNP. This measures the concentration of the hormone NT-proBNP in the blood which is elevated when there are certain underlying heart conditions or circulatory disease

The use of the blood test is limited to Life Cover only within the following cover limits:

See our up-to-date underwriting limits.

Temporary underwriting position for higher-risk customers

On the 16th April we updated our underwriting position for certain groups of customers who are considered more vulnerable to the effects of Coronavirus.

This will impact some customers who are rated and others who have existing health issues, such as significant or chronic respiratory conditions. We've reduced the maximum level of rating that we'll be able to accept to 200%, and will taper this threshold by age.

We'll be happy to reconsider cover for higher-risk customers after six months and when the current situation has been resolved.

In addition, there will be customers, particularly those in older age brackets with pre-existing conditions which mean they’re at greater risk of suffering severe complications from Coronavirus, where we currently may not be able to offer pre-COVID-19 levels of cover.

Financial underwriting approach

The economic impact of Coronavirus is already being felt and this is likely to be a challenge for some time to come. This may have a bearing on the value of an individual’s assets or their business, which are often used for financial underwriting purposes. It will be important therefore that any financial information we request is contemporary and, while we will always keep the evidence we request to a minimum, in some instances we may require additional information compared to what we would have asked for previously.

Changes to Diabetes Life Cover eligibility

We have made changes to our Diabetes Life Cover that brought the underwriting philosophy in line with changes we made to our menu plan.

The information below shows the customers we’ll not be able to offer cover to based on their diabetes alone.

Type 1 diabetic

Claims

We’ll consider any claims for Coronavirus against the terms and conditions of the customer’s plan and our usual claims philosophy.

As our minimum deferred period for Income Protection is four weeks, we don’t expect any claims for this cover from customers who’ve not been diagnosed with the virus itself.

For the majority of people who contract COVID-19, the symptoms will be short-lived and unlikely to trigger a payment for Income Protection. However, where the illness does extend beyond four weeks, we’ll consider a claim in line with the terms and conditions of the plan. There must be clear evidence that the customer hasn’t been able to work due to illness or injury and not the unavailability of work, which Income Protection isn’t designed to cover.

If a customer has been medically advised to self-isolate due to a pre-existing medical condition and it prevents them from working for longer than their deferred period, we’ll consider a claim in line with the terms and conditions of the plan. There must, like any other Income Protection claim, be a corresponding reduction in income.

Our plans don’t contain exclusions in relation to pandemics or the contraction of a virus in a foreign country.

We do restrict Critical Illness and Income Protection claims to certain parts of the world. This means if the person covered is living or working outside the UK we may need them to return to one of a list of specified countries for us to consider a claim. See our Plan Details for more information.

Our usual process for Income Protection claims is to get confirmation from the customer’s GP that they’re unable to work. If this confirmation isn’t available, for example if a customer has to self-isolate, our claims team will agree alternatives to help us pay valid claims quickly. Any customer who wants to discuss a claim can contact our claims team directly on 0345 6094 500.

Helping customers in financial difficulty

We recognise the impact COVID-19 is having on our customers, and some might be struggling financially just now. We want to do everything we can to help, so they can retain their cover during this time of uncertainty and in the future. If any of your clients’ personal circumstances have changed or they’re facing financial difficulties and unable to pay their monthly premiums in the short term, please ask them to contact our customer service team on 0345 6094 500 and they’ll be able to discuss what options we may be able to offer.

Keeping you up-to-date

We’ll continue to follow updates and guidance from government and health officials. This is clearly an unprecedented situation with things changing daily. We’ll aim to keep you informed of any significant changes affecting our ongoing business operations if we need to adapt to changed circumstances.