With it’s “Back-up Plan currently airing during Downtown Abbey ad breaks and in other peak viewing slots on ITV and Channel 4, Insurer Unum is pushing it’s income protection insurance hard.
This push is also helped by The Guardian whose ongoing Work LifeUKfeature is produced “in association with Unum” with plenty of scare stories about employees stricken by injury or illness that prevent them from working. There is even an official @unumGDN Twitter feed.
There is no mention in all that Guardian coverage, however, of a 2009 report by the American Association of Justice, (the huge US association of trial lawyers), which rated Tennessee based Unum the second worse insurance company in the US, based on a history of claims handling abuses that have “consistently been the subject of regulator and media investigation”.
After Unum turned down nearly a quarter of all claims in California, the states department of insurance investigated in 2005, finding that the firm “systematically violated state insurance regulations and fraudulently denied or low balled claims using phony medical reports, policy misrepresentation and biased investigations”. California insurance commissioner john Garamendi has described Unum as an “outlaw company”.
Me wonders who tipped them off about this story too 😉
“After Unum turned down nearly a quarter of all claims in California..”
– Much like our own public insurance company, the DWP, which turns down a vast percentage of sickness and disability claims and has now accumulated a monumental backlog of cases now in the appeals pipeline.
Give it time, they’ll be on Watchdog. Speaking of which..has anyone tried to apply for this “insurance” yet?
P -@ Joe And who’s been advising our own public insurance company, the DWP, on the reforms that’s resulted in the accumulation of a massive backlog of appeals, it wouldn’t be Unum would it ? 😉
That can’t be legal, surely? Didn’t £4Emma get into grief for advising the government to set up contracts she could pick up with the company daddy gave her?
That’s why Black Triangle have complained to the Office of Fair trading,(https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/10/12/black-triangle-complains-re-unum-to-office-of-fair-trading/), about Unum Zak.
The DWP acting like Unum –
Concern over welfare reforms raised by MPs
BBC News England
28 Oct 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15491092
I was told of one cancer sufferer who was refused DLA on the grounds he was able to work. Within a fortnight, he was admitted to a hospice.
“The government is acting like a cowboy insurance company,” he said.
“They are disqualifying people en masse both for Employment Support Allowance and now they’re moving onto Disability Living Allowance.
“This isn’t about getting people into work, it’s about saving the government money. It’s as simple as that.”
There has to be a way. and that is to get onto their rivals. Surely they would be interested in blowing the gaff and help get the negative stories out. And also question them after so close after the PPI miselling and scandals. Or does UNUM not think we have not been here before.
PS: What does “Which” magazine have to say? What is their write up and recommendation on this?
“Which” page of comparison and recommendation on which Personal Income Protection plan to chose. http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/reviews-ns/income-protection/guaranteed-policies/ No real write ups or explanation or evaluation of performance and history, expectation or reliability. But it gives you the rivals to go for. The rivals may be interested in your information on UNUM past performance and their current position in US where they have still not cleared their name or made good their compensation or victims. It is the rivals who may be interested in the information that may bring down UNUM’s position and shatter their PR myths. No you know their rivals then go to it. In just two weeks AA knocked down the price of Atos on stock market from 38.00 to 34.00 by aiming at the shareholders, partners affiliates and rivals (IBM chief was very interested) and my PC was mysteriously knocked out 2 days before their acquisition of Siemens. By which time when I got back on their share price was back up. (God knows what they had to sell to get that back up. But if it was in the millions and billions it was my pleasure) Since then their shareprice has gone down to 29.00 and even worse. It is suffering during this recession, and yes we are coming up to the double dip, or straight drop plummet. So go see if you can do some more damage to their reputation, money and confidence. I am sure their rivals would like to know and help you. PS: Make sure their rivals do not lead back to them. Many insurance firms lead back to UNUM Provident. Just check. But go have fun. You can do it. They need your money more than you do. Honest, They are desperate. The only thing insurance firms and the financial services do is attract money and spend all their efforts and sales in doing that. Once they get the money they are only interesting in themselves to gamble and deal with it. They do not own businesse or run factories or have any other skill than asking and persuading people to give them money to play with it themselves, win or lose it and deny the person giving them the money of their rights and deal under the contract. So have faith, and go smash them down.
I tend to watch the stockmarket via marketwatch.com. Here is Atos rise and plummet this week I am fucking delighted. http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/ATO?countrycode=FR You get used to it after a while and you can see and understand what is happening. This is where the battle is. Knock them down out of the sky.
I am also very happy with UNUM, who also look like they are going berzerk Do not forget that every small point up and down is meaning millions and billions. and to keep it up in a recession UNUM has to sell it own assets and create a false high. before it plummets again and again they have to find somewhere else in their organisation that they have to squeeze. Pity, Shame. I feel sorry, (not) http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/UNM
I have spent 2 years researching Atos/Unum Insurance and, if you look at the website, you’ll know how bad it is. This was planned in ’94 and every gvt since has continued, so it’s a long term goal regardless of whose in power. This is another step towards the UK adopting the American style health care funded by insurance.
http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatosveterans.html/#report refers, and is now being quoted in the House of Lords during the ongoing welfare reform debates. The Atos assessments are a replica of those used by Unum, and with an unelected Minister for Welfare Reform whose history is in finance, you can asume that things will only get worse.