Standard personal accident insurance: All you need to know

Insurance companies have been directed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to mandatorily offer a standard personal accident insurance policy from April 1 this year.

The new policy, named as Saral Suraksha Bima, is valid for one year period and offers three compulsory base covers and three optional covers opted by the policyholder according to his/her needs.

Who is eligible?

Every Indian adult (below 70 years) is eligible to buy this insurance policy. Their dependent children, if any, of 3 to 25 years of age are also covered within the policy. You can also buy this policy as a family but on individual basis – the total sum insured will be applicable for each member separately.

What is the insurance limit?

You can avail this policy for as much as Rs 1 crore with the lower limit at Rs 2.5 lakh. Between the two, the customer is free to pick any amount in the multiples of 50,000 as the total sum insured.

Coverage

The standard personal accident insurance policy offers three mandatory covers — death, permanent total disablement and permanent partial disablement.

If the insured person dies due to an an injury sustained from an accident during the policy period, the insurer is liable to pay 100% sum insured. The death, however, must take place within a year of the accident for this rule to be applicable.

Benefit of 1% to 50% of sum insured is applicable in case of permanent partial disablement while 50% sum insured is payable against loss of one entire hand, one entire foot, the sight of one eye or both ears.

It also offers three optional covers that can be selected as per the requirement of the policyholder — temporary total disablement, hospitalisation expenses due to accident and education grant.

If the insured person is not capable of indulging in any occupation or employment — a case of temporary total disablement (minimum 4 weeks), the policy pays 0.2% of the base sum insured per week to aid expenses.

One-time educational grant of 10% of the sum insured is payable to each dependent child in case the insured person dies or is left with permanent total disability due to an accident. This is only when the dependent children are pursuing an academic course from an education institute or if the child isn’t more than 25 years of age.

In case of an accident, the hospitalisation expenses will be incurred up to 10% of the sum insured. It will come under optional coverage. Other daycare treatments are also covered in this policy.

Premium

The premium for this policy can be paid on yearly, half-yearly, quarterly and monthly basis. A 30-day grace period is granted for yearly payment. As for the rest, 15-days grace period is allowed.