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“Over the past three years, average health insurance premiums across all levels went up by 8.6%, according to government data. However, our analysis found that the cost of top-level Gold hospital policies has increased by over 30% on average,” says CHOICE health insurance expert, Jodi Bird.
Read More Health Insurers are Increasing their Top-Level Policy Prices by over 30%
Fraud Alert
Recent super fund data breaches and increasingly sophisticated super scams demonstrate the urgent need for industry collaboration on a super anti-scam code. Super Consumers Australia today is urging the Federal Government to prioritise the safety of Australians’ 24 million retirement savings accounts by introducing a superannuation industry anti-scam code.
Since 2022, up to 178,000 superannuation members across three super funds have been placed at a heightened risk of phishing scams due to known super fund data breaches.
Read More Advocates Call for New Super Anti-Scam Code
#SaveSorryBusiness
First Nations financial counsellors, advocates and policyholders from the Save Sorry Business Coalition have welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement of an ‘enduring resolution’ for over 13,000 people harmed by Youpla and regulatory failures.
Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney has briefed advocates that the government scheme will include people who were still making payments to ACBF/Youpla on or after 1 August 2015.
Read More First Nations Advocates Welcome Federal Government’s ‘enduring resolution’ for Youpla Policyholders
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ASIC has published a summary document from a 30 November 2023 virtual workshop which focussed on building an understanding of identification verification challenges faced by First Nations consumers, and how industry can apply flexible approaches while meeting legislative requirements.
Read More ASIC Releases Summary for Indigenous Financial Services Framework Workshop
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Consumer advocates call on insurers to act now at flood insurance inquiry
Urgent changes needed to improve claims handling process
A number of consumer advocacy groups – including CHOICE, Financial Rights Legal Centre, Consumer Action Law Centre, and Financial Counselling Australia – will be the first to appear today and tomorrow at a public hearing for the parliamentary inquiry into insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims.
Read More Consumer Advocates Call on Insurers to Act Now at Flood Insurance Inquiry
The General Insurance Code Governance Committee (GICGC) has opened a survey asking for consumer experiences with experts involved on assessing loss or damage for home insurance claims. The GICGC’s goal with this survey is to examine how insurers monitor external expert opinions on the causes of loss or damage. The survey should take no more…
Read More Insurance Survey – Experiences with External Experts
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“The volume of complaints escalated to AFCA has been increasing at an unsustainable rate,” David Locke, the Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), said.
“Scam-related complaints to AFCA have nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023. They continue to be of great concern to us. We are also seeing the impact of increased interest rates and cost of living pressures, with complaints involving financial hardship also significantly higher,” Mr Locke said.
Read More Ombudsman Warns of “Unsustainable” Increase as AFCA sees a Record 100,000 Complaints
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released its Insurance Monitoring Report for 2023, the reports second annual release. The reports key focus was on insurance for homes, strata and small business in the Northern Territory and the effect, reception and role of the government’s new cyclone reinsurance pool. Due to the differences in…
Read More Insurance Monitoring Report 2023 Released
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Currently, the Disability Discrimination Act provides an exemption for life insurers to use genomic or genetic test results when underwriting life insurance contracts. Since 2019, an industry-regulated partial-moratorium has been in place that prohibits the use of these tests below certain financial limits.
The government encourages all interested parties to make a submission in response to the consultation paper, which can be found on the Treasury website.
Original media release by the Insurance Council of Australia (14/11/2023). An Independent Review of the 2020 General Insurance Code of Practice will be undertaken by an eminent three-person panel with backgrounds in consumer advocacy, financial regulation and the insurance industry, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) announced today. The Code sets out the minimum standards…
Read More Independent Review of the 2020 General Insurance Code of Practice
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The report, based on data sourced from Code subscribers’ Annual Compliance Statements (ACS) reveals that a notable 175 brokers reported no breaches, and 152 reported no complaints in the reporting period.
Chair of the IBCCC, Oscar Shub, expressed concern over these findings.
Read More Concern Remains Over Under-Reporting of Insurance Code Breaches and Complaints
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From 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023, AFCA received 96,987 complaints from consumers and small businesses – 34% more than the year before, and the most ever received by AFCA.
Read More AFCA Publishes 2022-2023 Annual Review, Updates AFCA Datacube
