Traditional group risk cover tends to ask one question. Can you still work? For a lot of people the honest answer is yes, and yet their lives have changed for good. Someone who permanently loses the use of a hand, their sight, or the ability to stand through a shift often does not meet the technical definition of disabled, so they receive nothing. That gap has sat quietly in the market for years.

In this conversation with FAnews editor, Rianet Whitehead, Fedgroup Life CEO Walter van der Merwe unpacks Inability Cover, a first-of-its-kind benefit built for South Africa. Rather than measuring whether someone can still hold down a job, it looks at what they have permanently lost. Defined losses are covered, from sight, speech and hearing to walking, lifting and the use of an arm or hand. If an employee permanently loses an essential physical ability, they are covered, regardless of whether a conventional disability claim would ever pay out.

It matters most for people in physically demanding work, from mining and manufacturing to construction, engineering, security and agriculture, and for the smaller and mid-sized employers who carry the responsibility of protecting them. It reflects the way Fedgroup approaches Group Risk in general, finding ways to pay claims rather than reasons to decline them.

Watch the full conversation to hear why van der Merwe believes the industry has been asking the wrong question, and what changes when it starts asking a better one. Speak to our team to see how Inability Cover fits into your Employee Benefits offering.