On The Road… Says Mrs Florence Kee: “I want life to go on as normal as possible.After the worst had blown over and Francis had recovered somewhat, we went on a trip to Penang.” Their 9-year-old son, Noel, shot this picture at Bukit Tinggi.

If she had known about the SLF GiftPlus payout that her husband was entitled to, Mrs Florence Kee would not have sold her fully-paid Nissan Sunny 1.5 two years ago.

But, she needed urgent cash to pay for the intensive care that Mr Francis Kee needed after he suffered a fall that resulted in a stroke on 20 July 2002, and there was no other source of supplementary income for the unexpected expenses.

“Francis couldn’t talk during the first three months after his fall. So, I didn’t know what insurances he had bought or what entitlements he could claim,” said Mrs Kee, 55, who ironically is a financial service consultant with an insurance agency.

“At the time of the fall, Francis was a human resource manager with a leading brand furniture manufacturing company. When I found out he would suffer permanent total disability and informed his company, his company decided to pay his salary in full until mid-August 2002. That was all the money I was sure of getting.”

Mr Kee, then 62, spent 19 days in National University Hospital and 30 days in St Luke’s Hospital for the Elderly.

“Fortunately, Medisave, Medishield and Medifund covered all the inpatient expenses. St Luke’s recommended that Francis remained in hospital for continual treatment and therapy but we could not afford his prolonged stay,” said Mrs Kee.

At the time of the fall, Mr Kee was an NTUC General Branch member and his union dues had been paid up-to-date through the seamless membership scheme. Mrs Kee only wrote in to Mr Kee’s bank branch to stop the Giro monthly deduction in January 2003, afterwhich she signed up as a General Branch member to continue the benefits of a union member, such as redeemable NTUC LinkPoints for goods and services when she shopped at NTUC FairPrice supermarkets. In May 2004, an NTUC membership officer called Mr Kee to find out why his membership had lapsed.

“I explained the membership would be useless to Francis as he had become disabled, and it was during that telephone conversation that I discovered I could make an SLF GiftPlus claim on Francis’s behalf. Until then, I had not known about such a membership benefit. Within a month of filing the claim, I received a cheque for $20,000. I was so relieved when I received the money,” said Mrs Kee.

SLF GiftPlus is a group insurance scheme that covers union members, with at least six months of continuous membership, for death and permanent total disability.

The family of a member, with less than 10 years’ membership, who dies or suffers total permanent disability due to natural causes or an accident during working hours gets $4,500. If he has been a union member for more than 10 years, his family gets $5,500. The family of a union member with less than 10 years’ membership gets $20,000 if death or permanent total disability occurs because of an accident outside of working hours. His family gets $30,000 if he has been a union member for more than 10 years. The family of a union leader gets double the payout.

Mrs Kee said if she had known about SLF GiftPlus, she would not have sold her car as it’s now less convenient to move about with Francis’s dependency on a wheelchair.

“The payout from the SLF GiftPlus that the family received is handy relief indeed. In times of need, every cent counts. Whereas it was so difficult to make a claim from an insurance company, it was quick and easy to collect the SLF GiftPlus payout.

“I didn’t even go to NTUC for it; NTUC came to me. I’m so glad that I’m now a union member too,” said Mrs Kee.