Here for you when times are tough
Protect was established to assist workers when times are tough, and times are really tough for a lot of people right now. Many of our members are preparing to draw on the severance benefits that they have secured with us, others have sought assurance that their income protection will kick in if they become sick with COVID-19 and some have wanted to reach out for counselling to support them through this difficult time.
Of course, our days look different, we’re running services remotely with all staff working from home, however we remain committed to supporting you through this period.
Feedback from our Member Services Team:
Sou
Every query and request we receive is important. Some members have lost their jobs, or their partners have lost their jobs. We are all working as a team, and making sure we are attending to email queries, voice messages, and processing member claims, and employer queries as efficiently as possible.
The feedback we've had from members is very positive, they’re surprised at how quickly we are attending to their concerns. I suggest that members email or use our contact us form to get in touch first because that way we can direct messages to the best person to assist without any delay.
We are all 100% committed to assisting our members and employers and we all appreciate your understanding and cooperation. It's definitely business as usual, but on a larger scale!
Alex
We’re so appreciative to have understanding members. Our team weren't taking live calls for a while so that was different for us but members were really good about that. We're now taking live calls again so many may not even realise that we're doing that from our homes!
One of the most common questions from members recently has been to do with their severance account. Late last year we introduced one account type that replaces the old TER and GRA accounts. It’s been really great to be able to alleviate the concerns of members thinking they had to rush to change account types in order to make tax savings if they were headed for redundancy.
There’s no need for account changes now and that’s a relief for members who have unstable employment.
Sandra
Personally, there’s less distractions for me when working from home so I’m finding it’s going really well. We’re often assisting members when they’re having their worst day so anything we can do to help always feels rewarding.
We’ve never been able to offer members access to their severance account without them first losing their job, but the ATO have granted permission for small hardship payment withdrawals due to COVID-19 and that’s making a real difference for some people.
I would advise members to keep checking back on our website because we're updating information all the time in repsonse to frequently asked questions especially.