Domestic family violence.

Family violence can look like:

• Physical abuse
• Damage to property
• Emotional abuse or coercion (insisting that you do something that makes you uncomfortable or fearful)
• Controlling how money is used
• Elder abuse

We are committed to providing support to our customers impacted by family violence.

We will achieve this through training our employees and distributors, so that we communicate with sensitivity, dignity, and respect when protecting your information and privacy. We will also refer you to specialist support services that can help you with family violence, and can refer you to our Customer Care team that has additional training and awareness in family violence.

Whenever family violence is identified or suspected, our priority is the safety of the person impacted by family violence and the protection of their family. We will look for the early signs of family violence and encourage you to tell us if you are experiencing family violence, if you feel comfortable to do so.

We will support you by:

Our staff, who are aware of policies and procedures.

Training

Our training and processes will be reviewed regularly and as required.  
Staff training will provide:

• Early identification and understanding the importance of recognising the early signs of family violence. This may happen if you tell us directly, or by other cues such as tone, background noises or being coached by others.
• Our response to your need for flexibility and safety.  
• Communication that will be empathetic, compassionate and respectful without judgement.
• Discussing support service referrals which may be able to provide continuity of support and care.

Our support services are listed here.

We understand that privacy and confidentiality are essential to your safety. Any information you share about your circumstances will be handled with strict confidentiality. We comply with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988. For more details, please see our Privacy Policy.  

Our processes are designed to protect your privacy and safety and minimise the number of times you need to tell us that you have been affected by family violence. Our insurance handling processes for claims and policy administration will be considerate and sensitive.  

Our processes may include:

• Flagging your policy or claim as sensitive
• Escalating your needs to our Customer Care Team
• How we secure your information to keep you safe
• Understanding that you may be experiencing financial hardship. Our processes are designed to provide appropriate support including how you can ask for financial hardship assistance 
  and ways we can support your request (such as deferring payments or building a payment plan). You can find more information on our Financial Hardship page.
• Where any debts are owed, we will be flexible and handle any recovery with care and sensitivity.  
• Giving you the option to choose who you speak with. If you feel more comfortable with a specific gender let us know. 

We understand that our employees, service suppliers, and distributors may experience or be impacted by family violence and need extra care at times. We also recognise that hearing conversations about family violence and supporting customer’s impacted by family violence, can 
cause emotional fatigue and vicarious trauma.  To support them, we provide access to our Employee Assistance Program, along with specialist teams and other support services.