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This will give you a quick overview of the Caregiver, Housekeeping & Home Maintenance coverage on your Ontario car insurance policy – we’ll briefly look at what it’s for, what it covers and what options are available so you can decide what protection you want on your policy.

 

Before September 2010, your car insurance used to include coverage for caregiver, housekeeping & home maintenance expenses that you incurred to pay for someone else to do these duties while you recovered from any type of injury suffered after a car accident. 

 

Now after September 2010, the standard coverage on your policy only provides these benefits to those who have the most catastrophic-type injuries. 

 

The problem is is that over 90% of all car accident injuries in Ontario are not catastrophic, so the odds are that if you’re injured in a car accident, the standard coverage on your policy won’t pay for any caregiver, housekeeping & home maintenance expenses.   So this means that the coverage may not  be available for injuries like whiplash, broken bones, moderate brain injuries or partial paralysis.

 

But you do have the option to add theses coverages back onto your policy so that they’ll be available for all types of car accident injuries.

 

So what does Caregiver, Housekeeping & Home Maintenance cover and how do you know if you need them?  Let’s take a look at Caregiver coverage. 

 

Are you, your spouse or any drivers listed on your policy a caregiver for others in your household such as children, elderly parents or someone with a disability?  If you provide un-paid full-time care to these dependents, and those are the triggers - up-paid full time care to dependents living with you - then we strongly recommend that you add back the higher level coverage to your policy – it will help ensure that if you you’re injured after a car accident, those who depend on you will get the care they require while you recover from your injuries.   

 

When you buy back the higher level of coverage, your policy will provide up to $250 a week for your 1st dependent plus $50 a week for each additional dependent.

 

 

Now let’s look at Housekeeping & Home Maintenance coverage.  

 

Basically, if you are unable to perform your usual housekeeping or home maintenance duties, like cleaning your home, doing the laundry, shoveling snow, or cutting the grass, this benefit helps to pay for you to hire someone to do these things for you while you recover from your car accident injuries. 

 

If you, your spouse or any drivers listed on your policy do your own housekeeping and home maintenance duties, then we recommend you add back the higher level of coverage on your policy. 

 

When you buy back the higher level of coverage, your policy will provide up to $100 a week to pay for housekeeping & home maintenance services while recovering.

 

A common comment we hear from customers is “I don’t need this coverage – my kids/wife/husband/ inlaws/neighbours will do these things for me”.  It may very well be the case, but this benefit is payable for up to 2 years – what you may want to consider is if your spouse, kids, in-laws or neighbours be able to keep up with the extra duties for that long, or would it help ease the burden to be able to hire someone to help out around the house?

 

Now, caregiver, housekeeping & home maintenance coverage is sold as a single package in Ontario.  The additional cost for having these coverages available for all types of car accident injuries is not huge at all.  We’re seeing costs typically starting around $10 a month per car for the average driver.  So the price is pretty reasonable.

 

If you still have questions about these coverages or the other injury benefits on your policy, feel free to give us a call. Given the degree of changes that have been made to Ontario car insurance, having the leverage HS Financial gives you may ensure you're not caught short on coverage when you most need it.  You can also find more information at CarInsuranceChanges.ca.