Total & Permanent Disablement Insurance

Total & Permanent Disablement Insurance (TPD)

Any or Own Occupation

This article brings home the importance of Total & Permanent Disablement Insurance definitions, any or own occupation!!

Many people who have been in occupations for years, are now being told after an injury or sickness, even though they may not be able to perform duties in their normal occupation, they would be suitable for an entirely different occupation.

Injured police officer applied for nearly 250 jobs after insurer said he could be a librarian

After being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, former police officer Adam Watts applied for 250 jobs after his workers compensation insurer told him he could get a job as a librarian.

He is still unemployed five years after being medically discharged from the NSW Police Force and after his insurer assessed him as "employable".

"I applied for nearly 250 jobs and it is impossible to get a job," he said.

Metlife Insurance rejected his claim for total and permanent disablement. A psychiatrist for the insurance company considered Mr Watts was not fit to return to the police force, but could be suitable for clerical or librarian work.

Mr Watts, 47, said he had no qualifications to apply for a job as a librarian and has applied for hundreds of jobs in areas the insurance company doctors and vocational counsellors recommended for his employment.

"They send you to cash for comment doctors who make reports on you who say you can be a librarian. I don't have any qualifications in librarianship or any skills or practical experience as a librarian," Mr Watts said.

Mr Watts said he spent half an hour to an hour being assessed by insurance company doctors. But the insurer had ignored the opinions of his own doctors who had been seeing him for 10 years.

"My doctors have been saying if Mr Watts gets well he may be able to pursue something but he is not well or it is unsure if he will ever get better," he said. "But their doctors say, well, Mr Watts can be a librarian or do clerical work.

Mr Watts said it has been a constant battle trying to prove his injury and battling with the Metlife insurance company which had put him, his wife and three children under surveillance.

"It took them nearly four years to decide on my claim," he said.

A spokeswoman for Metlife said it was not able to discuss the specifics of individual cases.

"However, we can confirm that we did receive a claim with respect to Mr Watts. The claim decision was reviewed by both an internal panel, as well as an external independent Claims Review Committee, and the decision to decline the claim was upheld at each review," the spokeswoman said.

"In Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) claims, the insurer's role is not to diagnose physical or psychological conditions. Instead, it is to determine whether a claimant is unable to ever work again in any suitable occupation."