For DDI, one needs to stay employed and if being unemployed for x number of months, then the cover may lapse and if re-employ, one will need to re-apply which by then the health may not be fully insurable while WL covers from day 1 till one lapses the policy on own.
It's DII (Disability Income Insurance), and what you describe is not accurate. The DII policies vary, but there is some tolerance for bouts of unemployment in most. However, I don't think any of them have any particular problem with policy continuation even if the unemployment is extended. You can still pay the premium and then, upon reemployment (or at least resumption of earned income from work), you're eligible for claims again. There's no need to bounce in/out of separate policies (unless you wish).
There are many insurance policies sold in Singapore that are fundamentally similar in nature. For example, if you have an Integrated Shield policy but spend a few months or a year in the United States, you really don't have any practical coverage. It's designed for hospitalization in Singapore, not in the U.S. However, you can keep paying your premiums, keep your policy in force, and then when you get back to Singapore there are no new preexisting condition exclusions and no new underwriting requirements since you kept the policy going. In fact, all the DII policies sold in Singapore have some tolerance for overseas postings (even for claims) if you're earning income from work.
Also, I wonder as a self-employed, one has to 'prove' income in the event of claims (this gets a bit complicated to me coz self employed income can fluctauate a lot).
Yes, but it's not particularly hard. You've still got IRAS and CPF records. Every insurance claim requires some degree of documentation of the loss. For example, if you've got a CI policy and want to make a claim based on advanced cancer, you have to submit proof you have cancer in the form of medical reports. The carrier may also demand
past medical records to make sure you didn't know you had cancer (and failed to declare it) when signing up for the policy.
Being a retiree, I am no longer eligible for DDI but still holding on to my WL (broken even) and long term disability insurance (can't really remember the difference btw a DDI and a long term disability insurance).
Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) or possibly ElderShield. The fundamental difference is that the definition of disability is quite strict. Base ElderShield, for example, requires an inability to perform at least 3 out of 6 "Activities of Daily Living." There are (or were) ElderShield supplemental policies that could reduce that to 2 out of 6, but that's still quite difficult. CareShield Life has the same definition. DII is definitionally tied to a loss of income from work due to disability.
It's absolutely wrong to suggest that this (disability) is a remote risk. Unfortunately it's not -- and it's usually
utterly financially devastating if experienced, i.e. it's truly catastrophic, which is precisely when insurance is most needed (if a money payout would help, and it certainly would with this catastrophe). As with death, with disability there's a loss of future income from work, but unlike death there are the higher costs of
lingering. To the government's credit, it's very worried about this class of risks, which is why CareShield Life is compulsory with younger cohorts. But CSL doesn't even begin to replace most income if you lose it all (or most), and as mentioned it's quite tough to claim. That difficulty to claim is by design in order to keep premiums as low as possible for a near universal program.
Now, obviously if you're retired (or getting close to retirement) and can afford retirement you don't need DII. You don't have much or any future earning potential to insure. It's not a policy that's right for everyone, but it's critically important for many. And it's particularly important in Singapore because we don't have much of a social safety net to speak of
and we have a high cost of living.
