We understand the critical role our products and services have in society by protecting families and individuals. That's why Unum is committed to building strong public/private partnerships that offer innovative solutions and serve the broader public good.

Unum contributes to the public discussion of disability and its complex challenges by sharing our expertise and supporting efforts to improve the handling of disability issues in the public sector. We also support policies that would make disability protection more accessible to more people.

In the U.S., we are working with the Social Security Administration, at their request, to:

• Help the agency reduce their paperwork by developing a proposal to share electronic medical records of claimants. This process will also reduce workload for the agency and avoid redundant requests to claimants for information.
• Assist with streamlining the agency's claims handling practices by developing a method to batch-ship disability application claims electronically.
• Maximize their limited resources by providing ideas on modernization, best practices and prioritization of claims for the most severe conditions.

In the U.K., we:

• Have focused our lobbying efforts to influence and educate policymakers on the important role the employee benefits industry plays in protecting people's financial well-being.
• Have been active in the public sphere for many years through membership in industry organizations and by responding directly to government consultations. Our main avenue to influence policy has been through membership and chairmanship of Association of British Insurers committees, particularly in the areas of claims management and protection development.

We are proud to have lobbied Congress to make long term care more accessible and taken the leadership in trade organizations to address disability, benefits and other policy issues.

Unum recognizes that the actions of public policymakers have the potential to impact our daily business operations. Because of this, our company, like other public companies, at times uses its resources to advance public policies that affect our business and are in line with our company's corporate values.

We also realize the importance of transparency as it relates to our corporate political contributions.

Access our policy statement on political contributions and our 2010 political contributions report.