A COMMON complaint of the national disability insurance scheme ElderShield was that it paid out too little and for too short a time.

Now, a insurer offering a revamped scheme is prepared to pay for life.

NTUC Income will pay up to $3,400 a month for as long as the person lives, going one up on rival Great Eastern (GE), which pays the same amount for up to 10 years.

But the premiums are higher.

Under the Income deal, a 40-year-old man who wants $3,000 payout a month for life will have to pay annual premium of $1,286 till age 65.

For a 50-year-old woman who now wants $3,000 payout a month for life will have to pay annual premium of $3,060 till age 65.

Criteria for payouts for both Income and GE remain the same as the basic ElderShield - inability to do three of these six activities of daily living without help: eating, bathing, dressing, walking, going to the toilet and getting out of bed or a chair.

The third company and newcomer, Aviva, is expected to release its schemes next month, shortly before people can start buying into them.

From next month, insurance companies can offer people 'creative' schemes to protect themselves against severe disability.

This follows the revamping of the five-year-old national disability insurance by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan recently.

He has upped the basic scheme, which now pays a disabled person $300 a month for five years, to paying $400 for six years from next month.

At the same time, he challenged the three participating insurers to come up with different schemes to suit the varying needs of the population.

Read the full report in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.