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Direct Payments Insurance Specialist Launches Website Resource
June 12th 2008
Fish Insurance, the leading disability and independent living insurance specialist, has launched a new website to provide direct payment managers, care, advocacy and social workers with greatly improved access to information and resources.
The site, www.fishinsurance.co.uk, features detailed information on the company’s policies, including policy documents and summaries, as well as resources such as links to nearly 130 disability advice, information, support and lifestyle organisations.
A ready-reckoner between the company’s basic Independent Living Insurance Policy (ILEP) and an enhanced package launched earlier this year has also been introduced in response to requests from workers in the direct payments field. Both policies were introduced to cater for those employing personal assistants through direct payments or private funds, with the new scheme addressing users’ concerns regarding employment law and potential liabilities which it is thought may have slowed take up of direct payments. A user’s guide to direct payments (www.fishinsurance.co.uk/faqs.html) is another key feature.
“We concur with the LSE’s Personal Social Service’s Research Unit which cited ‘concern about managing direct payments among service users and carers’ as one of only three key factors hindering take-up. Assuming the responsibilities of an employer may be a daunting prospect for a service user and was an issue we needed to address,” commented Fish’s sales and marketing director, Warren Dickson. “Whilst we have done so through the enhanced policy by, for example, including around-the-clock access to specialist employment law advice, we are aware that this message has not as yet been communicated as effectively as it might. The new website tackles that specific issue as part of a wider drive to provide greater clarity and ease of access to information and general resources.
He added: “Naturally we are keen to facilitate take-up of direct payments, an aim shared by the Department of Health, local authorities, most social workers and disability rights groups. But we will only grow by providing insurance which specifically matches need and which care advisors and users understand and appreciate the benefits of, especially in the current funding climate. Currently I think it’s fair to say that understanding is not universal and that we need to better communicate why we felt compelled to launch enhanced cover. The new website will be just one tool for doing that.”
Alongside the new website, Fish, which insures nearly 60,000 disabled people in the UK, will be producing information packs for distribution to all local authorities. It also plans to recruit a manager from the public sector to liaise between the company and councils and advocacy groups.
