Life without income protection insurance

Without income protection insurance, if you become seriously ill the impact can stretch further than your health alone. What are the potential consequences?

For many people who become seriously ill, without income protection insurance in place there is a possible impact on their lives beyond their health. Being unable to work due to ill-health can damage your financial security and detrimentally affect your standard of living.

Income protection insurance can help you to maintain your standard of living following an accident or illness which prevents you from receiving your regular income.

For many people, particularly in the present economic climate when savings are dwindling, even just a couple of weeks without an income could make it difficult to manage to financially. However, if the condition is more serious and requires a prolonged period off work, financial worries could soon add to your troubles at a time when you should be focussing on making a full recovery.

Weighing up the options?

When weighing up whether you need income protection insurance, you should think carefully about your unavoidable monthly expenditure. The cost of Items such as mortgage repayments, property tax, credit card bills, household bills and any direct debits you have set up should be calculated. Would you be able to continue making these payments on your current employee benefits or state benefits? If the answer is no, then income protection insurance can provide peace of mind.

One factor you should consider when taking out income protection insurance is the policy’s deferred period, which is the amount of time after ceasing work that the policy begins to pay out. As an example, a 13 week deferred period means you will have to be off work for 13 weeks before you are eligible.  In general, the longer the deferred period, the lower the cost of the premiums, so if you can financially survive for a few months on your savings, this is an effective method of keeping your costs down.

Finding the right income protection insurance policy can be a complicated and time consuming process. For professional assistance or a quote, speak to one of our experienced advisers on 1890 917 917 or complete our online quotation form.