Comprehensive cover with our ‘unbeatable’ Group Insurance

26 April 2024

Subscribers to the West Midlands Police Federation Group Insurance Scheme can now take advantage of a number extra benefits – including increased life assurance cover.

The Federation put the scheme out to tender at the end of last year and, after a series of meetings with specialist insurance companies, has now negotiated a deal with the previous provider – George Burrows.

“We were negotiating in very difficult circumstances, with some of the providers of legal cover withdrawing from offering policies for new business,” says Tim Rogers, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation who worked closely with Federation office manager Janet Lea during the renewal process.

“Of course, the cost of living crisis is having an impact on all our bills – and that includes insurance products – but, in addition, the constant barrage of negative media headlines in relation to policing don’t paint police officers in the best of light so insurance providers see us as a higher risk.

“It is against this backdrop that we went into the negotiations, but I am happy to say that we were actually able to increase benefits in a number of areas and bring both the Care on Demand scheme and off-duty legal cover into the Group Insurance Scheme cover.

“These are significant benefits for what was already a market-leading scheme. Our branch was the only one in the country that had been paying for the off-duty legal cover – which also covers non-duty related incidents - for all our members out of our own reserves but that was becoming unsustainable, particularly given the potential financial crisis facing the national Federation due to the pensions discrimination ruling.

“But I must warn Federation members who are not subscribers to the GIS that they will not have off-duty legal cover from 1 April 2024. The off-duty legal cover will only be available to those who subscribe to the insurance scheme.

“The Federation had also been funding Care on Demand, which gives officers easy access to a GP, something that has become incredibly useful given the difficulties many people are having getting an appointment at their own doctors’ surgery, so we are pleased that this will now be incorporated into the scheme and will also be available to retired officers.”

The Federation was keen to ensure any increase to subscription costs were kept to a minimum and, even with the additional benefits, serving officers will pay just £3.38 a month more for their subscription, increasing it from £25.94 to £29.32. Other subscribers will also see small increases to their subscription rates.

“Despite these increases,” Tim explained, “I firmly believe the Group Insurance Scheme still represents exceptionally good value for money and is unbeatable in terms of the cover it provides, particularly given that it is tailored to the needs of police officers. You could not go out and get a better level of cover under such a comprehensive scheme by shopping around yourself.”

Changes to the benefits on offer include: 

• Life assurance cover up from £130,000 to £150,000
• Options to take out additional life cover. This was previously available in tiers up to £100,000 and now it is up to £150,000.  
• Critical illness cover £15,000.   For an additional cost, extra critical illness cover is available up to an additional £17,500. 
• Total disablement cover increases from £130,000 to £150,000
• Enhanced benefits on the personal accident, mobile phone and gadget cover
• Increased vehicle excess under the travel insurance.

There is also a new scheme for serving officers whose partners are serving officers with the partners having the same full cover as the serving member which was not the case under the previous policy. This new scheme means two serving officers will pay less for the same cover than they would if they paid separately.

The main cover under the GIS is:

• Life assurance including terminal illness benefit and child death grant
• Additional life insurance option
• Critical illness cover – with the option to take out additional cover
• Care on Demand
• RED ARC -  supporting serving officers and their families cope with the practical and emotional effects resulting from the diagnosis of a serious illness
• RAC motor breakdown cover
• Personal accident cover
• ‘Best Doctors’ cover
• Regulation 28 - sickness insurance
• Worldwide family travel insurance 
• Mobile phone/gadget insurance.

The scheme is open to serving officers and Specials and they can also add a partner or spouse to their policy. Officers retiring from the Force can also continue to subscribe and there is a separate scheme available to police staff.

Full details of the new policies will be published on the West Midlands Police Federation website – polfed.org/westmids – from 1 April 2024 and George Burrows will be building an online platform, set to be launched in May, which will give access to all scheme documents.

Any Federation member who is not a member of the GIS but wants to find out more or join, can contact the Federation office or sign up using the application forms on the documents page of our website.