Domestic and Family Violence Assistance

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How we can help

We are committed to supporting customers who may be impacted by domestic or family violence.

If you’re an Asteron customer experiencing a domestic or family violence situation, please call us on 1800 221 727 or 07 3325 8500, between 8am to 6pm (AEST), Monday to Friday.

Our Domestic and Family Violence Policy applies to all customers, including those who hold or are covered under an Asteron policy. This policy has been developed to promote the safety of our customers and outlines the ways we can assist impacted customers.

Understanding domestic and family violence

Domestic and family violence can affect anyone. It usually involves violent, threatening or abusive behaviour enacted by a former or current family member, with the result of coercion or control, or causing fear or harm.

Domestic and family violence can include, but isn’t limited to, the following:

• physical violence
• sexual assault
• emotional or verbal abuse
• psychological abuse or controlling behaviour
• stalking
• financial abuse, and
• abuse of older Australians.

Our commitment and priorities

We have made the following commitments to our customers:

• We will always treat our customers with empathy, respect, and understanding.
• We will treat all information disclosed to us as confidential and protect your right to privacy.
• We will train our relevant staff on how to support customers who are experiencing domestic and family violence.
• We will work with industry bodies and consumer groups to continue to refine our approach to supporting customers affected by domestic and family violence.

For customers experiencing domestic and family violence, we will:

• Provide financial relief options to eligible customers as outlined in our Financial Hardship Policy.
• Offer expert external support services.
• Be flexible in our approach to claims and provide additional support for claimants through the claims process.
• Refer you to emergency services if there is an immediate threat of harm, as your safety is paramount.

Objectives of the Domestic and Family Violence Policy

Our Domestic and Family Violence Policy outlines the ways we can assist impacted customers. The ways in which we do this are outlined below:

• Making sure that the safety of our customers impacted by domestic and family violence is paramount.
• Training customer-facing staff to assist with recognising the early signs of domestic and family violence and to ensure our staff respond appropriately to customers impacted by domestic and family violence.
• Protecting your right to privacy and ensuring information you disclose to us is kept confidential at all times.
• Minimising the number of times a customer affected by domestic and family violence needs to disclose information about domestic and family violence to us.
• Ensuring appropriate and sensitive claims handling processes for claimants affected by domestic and family violence.

Collections and domestic and family violence

Asteron does not use external debt collections services to enforce or chase outstanding premium amounts. We have processes in place in relation to contacting customers to collect any outstanding premium payment before their policy lapses and to assist customers to retain cover if they choose.

If we become aware that a customer is impacted by domestic and family violence, we will handle any calls we make regarding lapsed policies with the utmost sensitivity and care to ensure the customer’s well-being is a priority.

Financial hardship

We ensure that all Asteron staff interacting with customers are aware of our Domestic and Family Violence Policy and Financial Hardship Policy and what support options are available for our customers.

Assistance and support

We commit to informing all customers of this policy. Customers will be offered support relevant to their situation, in so far as Asteron can provide.

Product design and domestic and family violence

We take into consideration the potential impacts of domestic and family violence when designing our products.

Customer complaints procedure

Complaints with respect to our Domestic and Family Violence Policy, including our compliance with it, can be raised using our customer complaints procedure. Complaints regarding failures and shortcomings in relation to this Policy (and others) will be directed to our Internal Dispute Resolution team for investigation. You can find out more about how to make a complaint, as well as in our Complaints Policy.