Educator Benefit

What is the Educator Benefit?

The Hollard Group Risk educator benefit provides the employee’s family with financial protection against the high cost of education in the event of the death of the insured parent. The educator benefit is made available as an add-on benefit to the unapproved death benefit.

Are all children covered?

When we refer to a child under this benefit we mean an unmarried, financially dependent child of the insured parent including a posthumous child, a stepchild, a legally fostered child, an adopted child and a mentally disabled or permanently, totally physically disabled child.

To qualify for the benefit the child must be enrolled at an educational institution and cannot be older than 24 years of age.

We do limit the number of children that will be covered by the policy and the number of children covered is set out on the quotation and on the policy schedule.

Will we pay for any school?

We will pay the benefit if a child is enrolled at an educational institution. This means that we will pay the benefit if the child is enrolled at any pre-primary school, school or tertiary educational institution registered with the South African Department of Education but excluding aftercare. If the child is enrolled at an educational institution outside of the Republic of South Africa, then the international schools must be registered with an equivalent department of education in the relevant country, and any international tertiary institution must be registered with the International Association of Universities.

If the child is not of school-going age then the benefit payment will not allow for private school rates unless the child has an older sibling at a private school at the insured parent’s date of death, or the child was enrolled to attend a private school before the insured parent’s date of death.

What happens if a child changes school?

If the child changes educational institutions we will continue to pay the benefit, but we will not pay a higher benefit than the amount that we would have paid before the change, after we have allowed for any inflationary increase. When the child changes from primary school to high school, we will allow for an increase in the tuition fees, subject to a maximum increase of 30% in the amount that we paid before the change. When the child changes from high school to a tertiary institution we will allow for the increase in tuition fees, subject to the maximum benefit as set out in the policy schedule.

What happens if a child fails?

If a child who is in either primary or high school fails a school year, we will pay for the child to repeat the year, but the benefit will be limited to 33% of the tuition fees payable. If the child fails a second school year, we will not pay the benefit until the child has passed and progressed to the next grade.

If a child is attending a tertiary institution and fails according to the policies of the educational institution, we will not pay for the -child to repeat any module and/or subject.

How to submit your claim

If you want to claim for the educator benefit you must first register for the educator benefit. This registration must be done when you claim for the death benefit. This registration gives us the information we need about the surviving parent or guardian and the children covered for the benefit.

Once you have registered for the benefit, we will issue you with an educator benefit certificate and you can claim for the tuition fees and allowances whenever these expenses need to be paid. You must tell us about the expenses you are claiming for, within nine months from the date of the invoice.