Does anyone have any experience of claiming income protection insurance through work? I have permanent health insurance through my employer. I was diagnosed with RRMS 6 years ago and have just about managed to keep working full time since then. Over the past few years things have become difficult and my employer processed a claim which was finally accepted by the insurance company a year ago.
Since then the company’s insurance provider has been compensating my employer financially for any time I’ve had off sick, which has been a lot this year.
I’ve now said to my employer that I need to reduce my hours. That was in a meeting I had with HR a few weeks ago.
My manager has not been involved in any of the meetings I’ve had with HR and called me in to a meeting room to say that we should reduce my hours anyway. I said I couldn’t afford to do it without income protection and thought that was the end of it until we heard back from the insurance company on the claim. So I was shocked when I received an email from her after the meeting confirming that we would be reducing my hours from 5 days a week to 2 and that we would follow up with HR.
i replied saying I had not agreed to that and have since had a meeting with the HR Director who was of course very diplomatic. The stress I’ve endured since then has been horrendous and has actually made my symptoms worse. Anxiety through the roof and a few panic attacks.
Apparently the claim is in progress and my MS Nurse has written a report to the insurance company which I haven’t yet seen.
Why do we have to go through such a fight when we are already ill and vulnerable?!
Thanks everyone, I have spoken to the lawyer who said they can’t reduce my hours without my consent as I’m under contract for 40 hours per week. Luckily my parents are friendly with an employment lawyer who lives across the road from them.
Presumably they have followed up the meeting with a letter to you. Whether they have or they haven’t got around to it yet, I think your first priority is to write to them to set down exactly what you have agreed to or not agreed to, including any caveats on which any agreement in principle might depend (being sure that you will be compensated for loss of earnings, for instance).
You really do need to make very clear in writing where you stand on this. Don’t let yourself be steamrollered by a process that you haven’t consented to. You don’t want to leave it vague enough for them to be able to argue in the future that they thought you had consented to it or been a willing participant. Clarity about consent is as relevant here as in other aspects of of human life!
Thanks so much for your reply Alison. I made it very clear in an email to my boss saying that I will only consider reducing my hours with compensation. I’ve got all emails on file for future reference.