In addition to health insurance, most employers offer other kinds of health and wellness-related benefits to their employees. These benefits are often referred to as workplace benefits, and they can include insurance to protect against accidents and illnesses. Some employers pay for these benefits, but most offer such benefits on a voluntary basis, meaning employees can choose to pay for them if they want them.
What are they?
Work benefits are a whole host of benefits aimed at helping employees protect themselves and their families from death, injury and disability due to illness or injury. These benefits often include disability insurance, accident insurance, critical illness insurance or cancer insurance and universal life insurance.
Who are they for?
These types of voluntary benefits can be for anyone, but they particularly appeal to people whose families would face hardship without their income. Single parents and breadwinners in one-income families are among the groups they most appeal to, as they are meant to provide financial support in the event that an injury, illness, or even death, leaves the person unable to provide an income.
How do they work?
Work benefits typically provide either a lump sum payment or a monthly stream of income for a certain period of time if a person incurs a covered event. Some policies may pay benefits indefinitely while others may have a set amount that stops once a limit is reached.
Different types
There are a few main types of voluntary benefits. Accident insurance pays out if an injury leaves you unable to work. Critical illness insurance will pay you if you incur an illness covered by the policy — usually cancer or a heart-related condition. Disability insurance will replace a portion of your income on either a short- or long-term basis if you are disabled and can’t work. Long-term care insurance pays for living assistance in old age and universal life insurance is a type of insurance that will pay death benefits.
Major benefits
The major benefit of having workplace insurance is the promise of some level of income should you become disabled and not be able to work for a short or long period.