Insurance Australia : NRMA Insurance boosts flood support with $1 million help package

NRMA Insurance has announced a $1 million help package for communities impacted by the devastating flooding in NSW and south east QLD, boosting the insurer's ongoing resilience partnerships with GIVIT, Australian Red Cross and Lifeline.

NRMA Insurance Group Executive Julie Batch, who was at the Lismore Recovery Centre today speaking with customers and the NRMA Insurance Major Event claims team, said: "It's devastating to see people suffering from these tragic storms and floods.

"While our priority right now is helping people through their immediate recovery, NRMA Insurance has a long history of working with our partners and communities year-round to build resilience against disasters and extreme weather.

"We've been proud partners of NSW SES, GIVIT, Australian Red Cross and Lifeline for many years, working with them to help communities through their immediate and longer-term recovery after disasters.

We're fast-tracking additional support to our partners now to meet the urgent need we're seeing in communities.

Julie Batch

NRMA Insurance Group Executive

"Our NRMA Insurance Help Package provides essential, urgently needed items to communities now, via our partner GIVIT; helps communities build their longer-term resilience and capacity to deal with future events via Australian Red Cross; and supports the ongoing mental health needs of communities via Lifeline."

The $1 million NRMA Insurance Help Package includes:

• $400,000 to help GIVIT provide the immediate items communities are asking for.
• $300,000 to support Australian Red Cross to help the recovery and prepare for future events.
• $300,000 to support an additional 2,676 Lifeline tele-health counselling sessions for impacted communities.

Other ways NRMA Insurance is helping:

• Supporting our longstanding partner, NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES), who are on the frontline supporting communities. We deployed the NRMA Insurance Helicopter to support NSW SES and Australian Red Cross to transport volunteer teams and essential supplies to isolated communities.
• Double matching employee donations through payroll giving to flood appeals from our community partners GIVIT and Australian Red Cross.
• 20 days paid leave for NRMA Insurance employees to volunteer with emergency response organisations including our partner, NSW SES.

NRMA Insurance has received more than 18,000 claims for damage to homes, property and vehicles from the heavy rain and flooding in NSW and south east QLD. As this extreme weather has affected vast areas across the eastern seaboard, the full impact will not be known for several weeks.

"We have our dedicated Major Event team in place all year round to ensure we are as well prepared as possible to support our customers when severe weather like this occurs," Ms Batch said.

"Our claims teams are at recovery centres in Lismore, Caboolture and Goodna helping our customers with immediate face to face support. And our NRMA Help Response Vehicle has been deployed at sites around Northern NSW so customers can lodge their claims and receive emergency support at a location convenient to them.

"Our assessors and repairers have started assessments and emergency make safe repairs, and we've secured additional temporary accommodation for any customers who can't return to their homes."

Ms Batch said the impact of these events on communities - many of which have been hit by multiple disasters since the Black Summer bushfires in 2019 and 2020 - highlights the importance of a greater focus on resilience, mitigation and preparedness.

"Along with our community partners, NRMA Insurance is determined to help increase the focus on resilience, to protect communities from the impacts of natural disasters and help reduce the risks people face.

"We urge governments to work with insurers and communities to take more action on resilience and mitigation, including improving land planning and building codes."

How NRMA Insurance's community partners are supporting flood affected communities

NRMA Insurance is proud to support the phenomenal assistance provided by their long-term community partners during this devastating event, including:

GIVIT

GIVIT has established the 2022 Storms and Flooding Appeal to coordinate cash and item donations.

GIVIT is an online donation platform that provides a smart way to give by matching requests for help with the people and organisations who can fulfill them. They work with more than 4,400 charities and community groups nationwide to ensure people get what they need when they need it most.

NRMA Insurance has partnered with GIVIT since 2014 as its National Disaster & Emergency Partner, supporting the organisation to expand its operations across Australia.

Australian Red Cross

Since the floods began, more than 500 Australian Red Cross volunteers and staff have helped in more than 50 evacuation and relief centres. Teams are also providing outreach services to support people and communities to recover and build their resilience to disasters.

They have also launched the QLD and NSW Floods Appeal and activated the Register.Find.Reunite service to help people affected by the flooding in NSW and QLD find their loved ones or let people know they're OK.

NRMA Insurance has been proud to partner with the Australian Red Cross for more than five years on a range of initiatives to help communities build resilience to disasters, including the Get Prepared App.

Lifeline

Lifeline counsellors are providing impacted communities with vital mental health support via tele-health services.

NRMA Insurance has been proud to partner with Lifeline since 2020 to support communities to recover from the complex mental health impacts of natural disasters.

NSW State Emergency Services

The NSW SES is often the first to respond to disasters, with volunteers putting their lives on the line to help others and keep our communities safe. They have made almost 2,000 rescues since these floods and storms began.

For more than 10 years NRMA Insurance has partnered with the NSW SES to help communities understand their flood risk and how to prepare and build resilience against it.