Financial Hardship
If you are experiencing difficulty meeting your financial obligations to us, we encourage you to tell us as soon as possible so that we can work with you to discuss your situation and the options available to support you.
How to seek support:
Step 1 - Contact Us
To discuss your circumstances you can contact our team and we will be able to guide you through the process.
Call us on 1300 308 080
You may be entitled to support because you are suffering Financial Hardship if you are;
- An individual Insured or Third Party Beneficiary (This means a person who is not a party to the insurance contract but is specified or referred to in the contract, whether by name or otherwise, as a person to whom the benefit of the insurance cover provided by the contract extends) who owes us money including an excess under an insurance policy we have issued that you have taken insurance cover for or;
An individual that we are seeking to recover money from due to loss or damage to either an NTI insured or a Third Party Beneficiary who we cover under an insurance policy.
You can also request assistance and ask us to fast-track a claim;
- If you have an urgent financial need where the event that caused you to make a claim under your policy has also caused you to be in urgent financial need.
We will help you by ;
- fast-tracking your assessment of your claim and the making a decision about your claim
- pay you in advance an amount to help ease your urgent financial needs.
We will have internal policies and training appropriate to our Employees’ roles to help them to identify if you are experiencing Financial Hardship and decide how they may be able to provide support for you.
Step 2 - Complete a request
To assist us in understanding your financial needs we may ask you to complete a Financial Hardship Request for information form. Depending on the situation we may request additional supporting documents to assist your application for support.
You can download a Financial Hardship Form here.
Step 3 - Assessment of your application
When we are assessing your request for Financial Hardship support, we will consider all reasonable evidence – for example;
- evidence of serious illness that prevents you from earning income
- evidence of a disability, including a disability caused by mental illness
- if you are a Centrelink client, your Centrelink statements; and
- evidence of your unemployment
If, after we receive your application for Financial Hardship support and require any additional information to make our decision we will then;
- tell you the information we need as early as possible; and
- be specific as we can reasonably be about the information we need
We will request information from you only if it is reasonably necessary for us to assess your application for Financial Hardship support.
You will have 21 Calendar days from the date of our request to provide that information to us unless we have agreed to a different timeframe.
We will tell you in writing of our decision within 21 calendar days after we receive your application, unless we have asked you to provide us with more information.
If you are not entitled to Financial Hardship support
- If we decide that you are not entitled to Financial Hardship support, we will tell you the reasons for our decision and about our Complaints process.
- If your circumstances change, then you may re-apply for Financial Hardship support in relation to the amount you owe. However, for any further application you make, it will be at our discretion whether we again put any recovery action on hold.
Standards for Collecting Money
- NTI as well as any Collection Agent or solicitor collecting money for us, will comply with the Debt collection guideline: for collectors and creditors published by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
- We will provide you with information about our Financial Hardship process and our contact details to enable you to contact us to discuss Financial Hardship support or if you have any questions.
- NTI as well as any Collection Agent or solicitor collecting money for us, are required to understand the Financial Hardship requirements under the Code of Practice and be able to help identify whether you might need Financial Hardship support.
Support Services
National Debt Hotline
The National Debt Helpline is a not-for-profit service that offers free, independent and confidential financial counselling to help people tackle their debt.
Phone: 1800 007 007 (9:30am-4:30pm AEST, Monday -Friday)
Website: ndh.org.au
Translation Services
If you require additional language assistance, NTI offer a Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) service free of charge. Our friendly staff will assist you with this process over the phone.
Website: https://www.tisnational.gov.au/