Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has issued fresh announcements aimed at making it easier for the policyholders to manage their policies at the time of the lockdown. The public sector insurer possibly waited till it became clear that the lockdown is not getting lifted after the 21-day span ends on April 14. LIC has been operating its branches with skeletal staff where possible. The major issue is that with the public transport services suspended, there is very little scope for the staff to reach their offices.
There are five announcements in all and these cover the following areas:
1. The first announcement relates to the relaxation on policy premium payments. Those policyholders who had the premium dues falling in February and had a month’s grace period now get time till April 15 to settle the premium dues.
2. The second relates to revival of policies. If the type of policy is such that it needs no evidence of good health, it can be revived online.
3. The third announcement by LIC has to do with the mode of payment of premium. Policyholders can use digital channels to make premium payments and there will be no extra service charge for the same. LIC has an app LIC Pay Direct, a dedicated payments app. This can be used by the policyholders to make payments, even without doing any registration. They need to put in the basic details and they will be able to make the payments.
4. LIC has said that payment of premiums can be made through Common Service Centres (CSCs) at block levels, and via Axis Banks and IDBI Bank branches. Payments through CSCs is by cash only.
5. In the fifth and last announcement, LIC has made available five plans that can be purchased online directly. These are Tech Term, Jeevan Shanti Annuity Plan, Cancer Cover, SIPP and Nivesh Plus.
Another interesting development is LIC has said if a policyholder has died due to the coronavirus, the death claims will be promptly processed and settled, considering the cause of death on par with other causes permissible as per the policy terms.