At McClarrons, our Care & Social Welfare insurance team are often asked about Abuse Cover and the different types of insurance available. Here, we explain the two types typically available, what this means to you and what you need to consider.
Unfortunately, we are increasingly seeing and hearing about abuse claims being made. This highlights the importance for any organisation that offers care to vulnerable people, to ensure that they understand the type of abuse coverage they have in place.
Jonathan Copley, Account Executive in the Care & Social Welfare team at McClarrons, commented: “It is so important that clients know and understand what form of abuse cover they have as, simply by marketing their organisation’s insurance and moving to a new provider could potentially leave them with a gap in their coverage”.
What’s the difference between Claims Made & Claims Occurring for Abuse Cover?
As you would expect, policies differ in the level of cover they offer. Many policies work on a ‘Claims Made’ basis, whilst others work on a ‘Claims Occurring’ basis.
What does Claims Made mean?
“Claims Made” means that you are only covered for incidents that happen and are notified to your insurer during the period of insurance. Therefore, any claim notified after this period, for example, if you were to move to another insurer, may not be covered.
If you switch to a new provider you must then make sure you have Retrospective Cover, although this can be difficult as insurers have different approaches to covering the risk.
What does Claims Occurring mean?
With abuse cover policies that work on a ‘Claims Occurring’ basis, this simply covers incidents that occur within the period of insurance. This means that even if the claim is made after the period of insurance, you would still be covered.
Markel also offer an illustrated explanation in the short video below.
If you are concerned and would like to discuss any element of your care organisation’s insurance, please contact a member of McClarrons’ dedicated Care & Social Welfare team on 01653 697055 or email care@mcclarroninsurance.com.
