Family and Domestic Violence Support Policy

Our commitment to you

At Assetinsure, we understand that family and domestic violence is a complex and sensitive issue that can affect anyone and create unique needs which require additional support when dealing with insurance.

We are committed to supporting customers experiencing family or domestic violence with care, dignity, and respect while providing a safe, confidential, and supportive environment for all our customers. Our goal is for you to be provided empathetic, consistent and timely assistance by people who are authorised to make every effort to accommodate your unique needs.

If you are experiencing family or domestic violence, we encourage you to let us know. If we can help in any way, please ask us.

How can we help You?

If you are affected by family or domestic violence, there are a range of things we may be able to do to try to support you. We will ensure employees, agents, partners, distributors and suppliers are appropriately trained so that we can help by:

• Prioritising your safety
  The safety and wellbeing of you and your family members comes first. If there is something reasonably within our power to do that will maintain or increase your safety, then we will do it.
  If you are in an emergency situation, call 000.
  For additional information and support call 1800 RESPECT, who are available 24/7.
  You can also access their website https://www.1800respect.org.au/
• Responding to your disclosure of family or domestic violence with sensitivity and respect
• Referring you to specialist services
  There are a range of support services available to people affected by family or domestic violence. Descriptions for some of those community services, and how to contact them, are available on the Customer Support Services page.
• Minimising how often you need to disclose information to us.
  Where possible, we will try to ensure that you deal with the same person each time so that we minimise the information we ask you to provide and efficiently capture the information we need.
• Working with your representatives
  We will make it as simple as possible for you to appoint an agent or representative who we will then work with.
• Handling collection arrangements with sensitivity
  If you have an outstanding debt to us and are involved in a situation of family or domestic violence, then we will be open to discussing with you how this can be managed as flexibly as possible.
• Assisting to arrange access to financial hardship help
  If you have been impacted by family or domestic violence you may be eligible for financial hardship support such as deferred, reduced or waived payments for claims excesses or outstanding debts owed to us. For information on financial hardship please refer to our Financial Hardship Support Policy available on our website.
  Sometimes you may need extra help to get your finances back on track during a difficult time. For free, confidential, independent financial advice you can call the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.

How we protect your privacy

We recognise that privacy and confidentiality may be critical to your safety, and we will treat any information you give us about your situation and your personal circumstances with confidentiality. We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles which are set out in the Privacy Act 1988. For further information please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Depending on your personal circumstances, we can:

• keep your contact information on our systems secure and confidential
• help you manage how your personal information is shared with other parties and discuss safe ways to communicate with you.

Precautions we take when communicating may include:

• finding a mutually appropriate time to talk on the phone
• assessing whether it’s safe to send text messages or leave voice messages, and
• sending information separately – if you’re a joint policy holder, we may need to send information to two different mail or email addresses.

How we handle joint policy holders

If you are a joint policyholder, meaning someone else is named on your policy as well as you, we recognise that this is particularly important, and we will:

• consider the potential risks to your personal safety and act according to our obligations relating to joint policy holders
• where needed to protect your safety we can help you set up a new policy
• explain any limitations regarding policy changes
• offer a sensitive claims handling process that provides you confidentiality and safety.

How we help with claims

If you make a claim and you are affected by family or domestic violence our people will handle the claim with sensitivity, flexibility and care. We will ensure an appropriate and sensitive claims handling process is followed by training our employees to:

• be aware that events resulting in insurance claims can trigger violence
• not require you to make direct contact with an alleged perpetrator or notify the police about an alleged perpetrator
• minimise the need for you to retell your situation
• be flexible in our approach to accommodate your needs
• where possible look to accelerate claim decision outcomes.