LV= increases non-medical limits and reduces evidence requirements for FPP income protection

In another step to help ease access to protection and alleviate growing pressures on the NHS due to the surge in Coronavirus cases, LV= is increasing non-medical limits for Flexible Protection Plan (FPP) Income Protection and removed additional evidence requirements such as tele-interviews.

From 6 January 2020, LV= has made a number of changes to non-medical underwriting limits for FPP Income Protection:

• Removed the requirement for automatic medical telephone interviews. And, won’t be replacing these with additional evidence requirements.
• Significantly increased limits for paramedical screening reports and cotinine levels for clients up to age 41 and 47-51 (next birthday).
• Reduced general practitioner’s report limits for clients aged 57-60 (next birthday).

Debbie Kennedy, Protection Director at LV=, said:

“Through the pandemic, we’ve constantly reviewed our approach and practices and have made a number of positive changes for consumers, existing policyholders and advisers. The need to protect income has never been more relevant, so we must be more flexible in these turbulent times.

With COVID-19 continuing to impact our everyday lives and place further strain on our NHS, we’re actively seeking to responsibly push the boundaries to make protection easier to access and apply for. We expect that this latest change to our non-medical limits will increase our straight through acceptance rates for Income Protection, with more than 70% of cases accepted with no further evidence required.”

Limits for LV= Personal Sick Pay remain unchanged, except for adding screening reports instead of a medical tele-interview, likely to affect only a handful of cases a month.