U3A Knox Insurance Policies

There have, from time to time, been questions asked regarding who in the U3A Knox is insured and who is not and why. This response attempts to address some of these enquiries.

For legal liability, in other words cover against litigation, the U3A Knox is insured with VMIA (Victorian Managed Insurance Authority). This consists of a number of policies, overseen by the U3A Network Victoria and paid for by the Victorian State Government. There is no cost to us and most U3As in Victoria use the same cover.

Under these policies the organisation and its tutors, committee members and authorised volunteers are covered against legal liability, but ONLY WHILE THEY ARE ACTING IN THEIR CAPACITY. This means that if there is an incident, and negligence can be legally proven against the responsible leader, costs would be covered by insurance. The legal action can, of course, be brought on by anyone, leaders, students or even visitors, as long as they have been invited. Nobody can stop anyone from litigating.

Personal accident and medical expenses may be covered for committee members, tutors and authorised volunteers again ONLY WHILE PERFORMING THEIR DUTY. This is akin to Work Cover where it is the risks that are entailed in the performance of the job that are covered. These same people are not covered while they attend another class as a student.

The U3A Knox does have separate cover for contents and assets.

This is, of course, an abbreviation and a simplification and is not an official statement of policy, but hopefully it explains why our internal U3A policies recommend that all members, leaders included, take out their own relevant insurance cover, especially, ambulance cover.

U3A Knox Committee of Management