Personal Accident Policy : An Insight

“Accident”, as the name suggests means something harmful that happens unexpectedly or without any intimation. Life is uncertain & we all undoubtedly agree to it. Every morning, when a person wakes up, goes for work, he is not sure whether he will reach home by evening for sure. Be it in his own car, or catching a bus or train or for some, who just walk down to their office. This is not only the case with a working professional but also this applies to a school going kid, a teenager or a retired individual.

John, aged 28, a smart postgraduate working professional, was heading for his job on the bike on a sunny day. Since he got a little late, he thought riding a little fast would definitely make him reach on time. But, destiny had something else for him. On the busy streets, while he was riding, suddenly a car banged into his motorbike, John, couldn’t control the vehicle & as a result met with an accident.
Due to Multiple fractures, he had to be bedridden for 8 weeks.Unfortunately, neither John nor his employer had a personal accident cover.

Lets take another real life example, Rameshbhai (name changed),aged 55, a businessman, who catches a local train daily for going to his office, unfortunately slipped one day while catching a train & as a result lost both his legs. Sad but a true story. Unfortunately, neither he had a Personal Accident Policy.

In both the above cases, there were two things which were common, one was that both met with an accident and second, there was no personal accident policy with either of them. Undoubtedly, there is no monetary replacement for the loss of limbs or in the case of John, there is nothing, which can relinquish his pain.But yes, there is definitely a personal accident policy, which can help them with loss of income or compensate them financially to a certain extent. Lets see how.

In the case of John, lets say had he availed for a personal accident policy for a Sum Assured of 10 lacs, the annual premium for the same would not have been more than Rs. 2000. Against this, he would have got a compensation for Rs. 40000. (As Rs. 5000 is the max amount per week a person gets in case of Temporary Total Disablement, as long as he is disabled from engaging in any employment, subject to a maximum of 100 weeks)

Now, in the case of Rameshbhai, premium would have been the same for Rs. 10 lacs., which is Rs.2000 but yes, he could have got a compensation of Rs. 5 lacs, which can give him some temporary monetary relief. As the clause states that 50% of Capital Sum Insured is payable in case of total & irrecoverable loss of foot.

Its not as simple as it seems, yes, there are certain norms & procedures to be followed, like when an accident occurs, one has to file a police complaint, get all the legal formalities done, must obtain a doctors certificate stating the duration of illness & whether its permanent total disability or partial disability. All this depends on actual facts & circumstances of each individual case & how the treating doctor assesses it.

But, lets take today’s scenario where a movie ticket in a multiplex costs an individual approx Rs. 300, petrol per liter in a metro is Rs. 73, bare minimum monthly household expense in metro cities is somewhere in the range of Rupees thirty-forty thousand, this policy should be availed definitely by each & every individual where the premium per month is even less than a movie ticket cost. Surprising, but true, a policy one can never miss, rather one should never miss.