The test for total and permanent disablement under a group life insurance policy requires a realistic and common sense assessment of whether the insured would actually obtain paid employment for which they are qualified by education, training or experience. If the insured requires retraining to be employable, they are totally and permanently disabled. Workplace rehabilitation programmes that impose duties different in substance from the insured's pre-injury work, and which ultimately fail, provide strong evidence of total and permanent disablement. A claim under an insurance policy that could and should reasonably have been raised in earlier proceedings between the same parties concerning the same policy is barred by Anshun estoppel.
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