Well guys I'm going to have a whinge about the so called Income Protection Insurance that everybody pays for as part of their licence fees to the AKA .I as some will know had an accident at Willowbank in Jan this year and broke some ribs and a vertebrae etc and am unable to work for 6 to 12 months.I thought it was great when I found out that my claim had been accepted by SLE Insurance they accepted the proof I had income and started to pay me $500 per week for loss of income( a fraction of what my potential earnings would be as I'm a mechanic and you know how they charge!) now the information I supplied was not exactly what they asked for as I couldn't supply an up to date tax return as I hadn't had this done yet and I am self employed nether the less they accepted liability excepted the claim and started to pay! 3 months worth of payments in and they stop paying saying they don't have the relevant income information they then requested a 2012 tax return be supplied within 3 days or they won't pay( yeh right try get a COMPANY tax return done in 3 months let alone 3 days) .After discussing this with them they suggest I supply proof of income for 2012 which I did and surprise No they are still not happy now they want proof I had income up to 13 Jan 2012 ( even though I taken leave to work on another project for a few months but could go back to work at any time and earn an income ) they still want proof How do I supply that?? they suggest I get a letter from my accountant to prove income so I contact my accountant only to confirm that the information already supplied to SLE is all he could supply and confirm anyway short of doing a complete tax return which costs $2500 money I don't have as I have now been of work for 4 months 1 of them now with no income.
I guess what peee's me off is that every member of the AKA is being charged to fund this insurance policy which is great if it pays but if you can't supply or they decide you haven't provided enough evidence or they change their mind then your not going to get paid. And for some of you your not even going to be elligle to claim on the insurance policy you've already paid for!
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Mate, you get what you pay for in insurance especially in the AKA and motorsport as well as many companies wont touch sport associations at all. The AKA have the CHEAP cover, they are require to have insurance but there is nothing to say what the minimum number is, look CLOSELY at the coverage the AKA have its POOR especially if you end up in a wheel chair for life, I know what it takes to look after a person in a wheel chair its NOT CHEAP [ nor fun].
if we want top shelf stuff be ready to pay through the nose for it, selling this sport to the newby is hard enough and licencing costs are a big thing to a newby.
You would hope though the AKA admin would be able to assist you in the process though not leave you out to hang.
your only real hope to get adequate money if the injury is big enough is to go to court and sue for negligence but that hard to do these days and expensive.
I hear you I have now been forced to apply for Centerlink benefits so will soon be bludging off the tax payers( I was one so don't feel to bad) as I can't get any of my super! If the freaken Insurance companies aren't going to pay without being ridiculous about trying to prove income etc then why have insurance especially since we have no say in whether we have insurance or not!. The fact that we are forced to have something that has no intention of paying out is fraud and the AKA is part of that there the one's charging for it without asking if you want it or not!!( feel like your being ripped off yet??) I give them (the AKA) 10/10 for taking initiative to protect us but If you have a accident especially a bad one and can't claim you may as well not have insurance! It's to late when your injured or worse to find out there not going to pay!!!! Why not make licensing cheaper but make it a requirement before you drive to have your own insurance ? Then it's in the participants hand to make sure they get cover they pay for!!!!
Don't give the AKA any credit here as they are required by law to have insurance, so its not the AKA trying to look after you its just them complying with the law. As I have said they have chosen the cheap route and as you can see its difficult, as I have told many you don't know how good your insurance is until you make a claim. If the payout is big enough they will find anyway they can to get out of paying believe me I KNOW first hand their attempts to get out of paying.
As I said above read the chapter in te maual, it will detail what you get covered for and the amounts, ITS NOT MUCH AT ALL especially if you suffer a permanant injury.
I hope the new board could/will look at this at renewal time, I am sure there are better deals out there.
think of the numbers though 7000 karters all paying most likely $100+ each in insurance EVERY YEAR the figure is quite high for porr coverage really.
I doubt you will find an insurance company that will cover you if you had to find your own, most wont cover you if you do adventure sports etc so motorsport would be out or at least VERY expensive?
The ONLY thing I encourage karters to have is their own ambulance cover, as I understand the AKA coverage only covers you from the track to the local hospital if you have to go elsewhere afterwards its all on your health cover if you have any, medicare wont cover it. Believe me have had to use air ambulance before and I THANK GOD I had ambo cover otherwise I would be debt bigtime.
I'm not sure about the ambo thing as I went straight to the PA instead of Ipswich !! I agree about the amount of karters being ripped off and that is my point out of those 7000 karters there would be a significant amount that have been "sold" a policy that would never be able to make a claim on that was going to be paid!!! this is fraud !!!
Whilst they did pay me (3 times) the money came in handy and I could survive so in my case it was sufficient! but if you read the policy they won't payme as a driver if I can't supply the specific income details there asking for ,but they will pay a non income earning driver up to $200 per week to have a cleaner come in and clean their house in the event there unable too??? WTF
Whether it be pour cover or not I commend them for at least having some form of cover whether it be forced or not the fact of the matter is it doesn't mater a crap if you have the most expensive policy in the world if it's not going to pay!!!
The way i read this is the insurance company is asking you to provide proof you were earning money before you had the accident. Proof you cant provided because YOU havent done a tax return for the last finacial year. They have payed you on good will you were earning and noe require proof. So its not the AKAs issue as they are not the under-righters the insurance company is. Secondly the insurance company want proof you were earning before hand, which seems pretty fair too. So its not the insurance companies fault yoh havent done a tax return. Its hardley fair to bag the AKA for this or even the insurance company either when your at faulf for not completing your tax return.
Hi Chris,
Damian raises a good point as well, we sometimes hear how hard it is to claim on some things because the insurance companies appear to make it hard and give the impression they don't want to pay, an sometimes thats true. But I believe its a direct result of the many attempt by people to rip them off with fake claims etc so they make claimants jump through hoops etc. So its logical for the companies to ensure that they pay legit claims after all its their money. I know from my case what I had to proove to the insurance company [ spend 3 days in sydney at various doctors getting independant second opinions] and I can relate more extreme cases where people had to do extrodinary things to proove their injuries.
Now I know you are legit with your imjury but it appears prooving income is not easy for you, this could be the policy details at play, and can be an issue, as I said above AKA have a cheap policy so the "devil" is in the detail. ,many insurance companies are making it easier to claim, ie no more disagreement between whats a storm damage or a flood, maybe AKA need to look into it a bit more at renewal time. I would ask your club to ask the new board to look at the coverage and policy and these things to possibly get a better deal.
My dealing with insurance companies is quite extensive over the years and have found them easy to work with if you cooperate and you are legit if they smell a rat they will play hard ball.
Hi Damien
It's obvious it's an open and shut case!
First of all What you fail to recognise is the fact that they accepted the liability for the claim on the information that I supplied as previously discussed with them that I DID NOT have a 2012 tax return done as yet! They then asked for proof of income in 2012 after 3 months which I also supplied!! So I actually provided 2 forms of proof of income! Which they had asked for!!!
And I agree that it wasn't exactly what they are asking for now but it was proof enough 3 months ago !!
Second if the insurance company had enough "good will" as you put it to pay me at first they should have enough "good will" to recognise that what they are asking is unreasonable given I have already supplied enough for them to believe that I had an Income in the first place!
Thirdly I did not bag the AKA in fact I commended them on the initiative to provide an insurance policy! what I did bag is the fact that people are being forced to pay (provided you want an AKA license) for a policy that some people are not able to claim on ie non income earners !
You might like paying for for things you can't have but I don't! Further more the policy covers Non Income earners for a cleaner to come and clean there house if there injured (up to $200 pw) but offers them no income to put food in there mouth! I would think that if you were unlucky enough to be injured you would be more concerned about putting food in your kids mouths and a roof over there heads than keeping the house clean!!!!
Damian Cane said:
The way i read this is the insurance company is asking you to provide proof you were earning money before you had the accident. Proof you cant provided because YOU havent done a tax return for the last finacial year. They have payed you on good will you were earning and noe require proof. So its not the AKAs issue as they are not the under-righters the insurance company is. Secondly the insurance company want proof you were earning before hand, which seems pretty fair too. So its not the insurance companies fault yoh havent done a tax return. Its hardley fair to bag the AKA for this or even the insurance company either when your at faulf for not completing your tax return.
col please place this in the normal forum i think all karters should read this
cheers ted
Full income protection costs me around $100 a month are people willing to pay another $1200 on their licence fees?
take it to the insurance ombudsman
Steve,
Thats the problem, we have a BASE insurance policy covering BASIC stuff ad BASIC amounts, if we want blls and whistles and coverage for every scenairio and injury we will pay BIG time. the LAW tells the AKA must have insurance is does NOT say what level of coverage it must have other than I think $30m public liability?
As an excercise have a look a look at the situation [ heaven help] if you ended up in a wheel chair and what the policy will give you? its NOT that much and I KNOW what ots like to look after someone in a wheelchair the amount of home renovations needed and mode of transport is extenive and expensive.
The only chance of getting BIG money is hope you can proove negligence on the AKA part and given IF they run to the letter of the book there is little cance of succeeding.
But then again MANY other moorsport do suffer from same problem.
Can anyone recommend a company that does income protection for Motorsport?
Mike,
you would have to just try them all I suppose? I know many ask you if you partake in adventure type activities and adjust their fees accordingly, like all insurance companies the more the risk [ of them having to pay] the higher the fee they charge.