Income Insurance must balance rigour with greater empathy and compassion, says NTUC chief

Income Insurance must balance rigour and due process with greater empathy and compassion, said NTUC secretary-general Ng Chee Meng on Oct 8, commenting on a recent judgment surrounding Income Insurance’s handling of a claim.

- Samuel Devaraj Correspondent

In the case in question, the district court had awarded more than $417,000 in damages to the family of Mr Ko Wah, who suffered severe brain injuries from a traffic accident in 2019 when he was 78, and lambasted NTUC Income over its refusal to pay certain claims.

Deputy Registrar Kim Bum Soo had made it clear that his judgment, which was published on Oct 1, documents the insurer's “wholly unreasonable behaviour” and “represents the court’s unmixed dissatisfaction with the manner in which NTUC Income has conducted itself”.

He said the insurer had failed to give a credible reason for its “callous and meritless” objection to paying for some of the medical expenses that were covered by payouts from MediShield Life.

He also found it inexplicable that NTUC Income ~ now known as Income Insurance after it changed its legal structure in 2022 — staunchly refused to pay for ambulance-related expenses totalling $1,992, despite having been willing to pay for Mr Ko’s hospital expenses.

In a Facebook post on Oct 8, Mr Ng said the judgment had been of deep concern to him and expressed sympathy to Mr Ko’s family for the grief and the emotional distress they have had to go through in the past year.