Personal accidental cover policy

A personal accidental cover policy pays out only when an accident causes the harm. The workbook's own words: it is an insurance plan which provides monetary compensation in the event of bodily injuries or disability or death caused solely by accident.

That one word, solely, is the whole design of the product. It does not pay for illness, and it does not pay for a disability that develops over time from natural causes. It pays when an accident is the direct and only cause of the injury, the disability or the death.

It sits in the workbook's Chapter 6 list next to motor insurance and health insurance, as a distinct, narrower product built around a single trigger: an accident.

The workbook gives the trigger for a claim rather than a rupee figure: bodily injury, disability, or death, caused solely by accident. It does not state a sum insured, a premium range or an age band for this specific product in this booklet.

The word solely does real work here. If an accident is only one of several contributing causes — for example, an existing medical condition also plays a part — the policy's design, on the workbook's own wording, is built around the accident being the sole cause. This is what separates a personal accidental cover policy from health insurance, which pays for medical and surgical costs generally, whatever caused them.

Rohit, a delivery rider in Pune, buys a personal accidental cover policy with a sum insured of Rs 10,00,000, paying a modest annual premium.

He is involved in a road accident and suffers a permanent partial disability to one hand. Because the disability was caused solely by the accident, his policy pays out a proportion of the Rs 10,00,000 sum insured, as fixed by the policy document.

Had Rohit instead fallen ill with a disability arising from a long-term illness unconnected to any accident, this policy — built specifically around harm caused solely by accident — would not have been the one to pay; a health insurance policy would have been the relevant cover instead.

Chapter 6 (Insurance Related Products) lists the personal accidental cover policy among the named insurance schemes, immediately before motor insurance. Expect a question that tests the word solely — distinguishing an accident-only trigger from health insurance's broader medical-cost trigger.

• The trigger is an accident, and only an accident. A disability from illness is not covered by this product's own definition.
• This is not the same as health insurance, which pays medical and surgical costs regardless of cause.
• This is not the same as motor insurance, which insures the vehicle rather than the person.
• The workbook gives no sum insured or premium figure for this product — any specific number in a question is illustrative, not sourced to this booklet.