Income Protection Insurance
Your income pays for everything else. This is the policy that stands behind it.
Ask yourself one question. If illness or injury stopped you working for six months, what would pay the mortgage? Statutory sick pay is a fraction of most salaries, and many employers' sick pay runs out far sooner than people assume. For the self-employed, there's often nothing at all.
Income protection pays you a monthly, usually tax-free income (typically up to around 60% of your earnings) for as long as you can't work, potentially all the way to retirement age with a full policy. It's the cover professionals consistently rate as the foundation of a protection plan, and the one most households don't have.
What working together looks like
Built around what you already have
I check your employer's sick pay and any state support first, then design cover to start exactly when they stop. A longer 'deferred period' where you're already covered means a meaningfully lower premium.
Own occupation, own numbers
The best policies pay if you can't do your job, not just any job. I recommend 'own occupation' definitions wherever possible and size the benefit around your actual fixed costs.
Self-employed friendly
Variable income needs careful handling so the benefit reflects what you really earn. I know how insurers assess self-employed earnings and structure cover that will stand up at claim time.
Picture a self-employed plasterer earning around £3,000 a month with no sick pay. A back injury stops him working for eight months. Statutory support comes to a small fraction of his outgoings, and the mortgage, van finance and family food bill don't pause. An income protection policy with a four-week deferred period paying £1,800 a month would have carried the household through, for a premium comparable to his broadband bill. The figures are illustrative, but the exposure is real for anyone who works for themselves.
Income protection, translated
- Deferred period
- The wait between stopping work and the policy paying, commonly 4, 13, 26 or 52 weeks. Longer wait, lower premium. Match it to your sick pay.
- Own occupation
- The policy pays if you can't do YOUR job. Weaker definitions ('any occupation') only pay if you can't do any job at all, which is a huge difference at claim time.
- Full term vs short-term
- Full policies pay each valid claim until you recover or reach retirement. Budget versions cap payments at 1 to 2 years per claim. Both have a place, as long as you know which you're buying.
- Indexation
- Benefit that rises with inflation so cover bought today still pays the bills in fifteen years.
Asked all the time, answered honestly
How much of my income can I cover?
Typically up to 55–65% of gross earnings, which lands close to normal take-home pay because the benefit is usually tax-free. I size it against your fixed outgoings rather than defaulting to the maximum.
Isn't this what critical illness cover is for?
They're siblings, not twins. Critical illness pays a one-off lump sum for specific serious conditions. Income protection pays monthly for anything medical that stops you working, including the bad backs and mental health conditions that cause most long-term absence and that critical illness policies don't cover.
I'm employed with six months' full sick pay. Is it still worth it?
Quite possibly, with a six-month deferred period so cover starts precisely when your employer stops. That structure can be surprisingly inexpensive. Long illnesses are exactly the ones that outlast good sick pay schemes.
How do insurers treat self-employed income?
Usually as an average of recent years' taxable earnings or your share of net profit, evidenced at claim time. Setting the benefit realistically at the start is my job, and it's what prevents disappointment later.
Does income protection cover redundancy?
No, this is illness and injury cover. Unemployment cover is a separate, shorter-term product with its own limitations. If job security is the worry, that's a different (honest) conversation.
Will mental health be covered?
Full income protection policies generally cover any medically certified inability to work, including mental health, which is one of the most common causes of long-term absence. Policy terms and honest disclosure at application still apply, and I'll show you how specific insurers approach it.
Let's talk about income protection
A free, no-obligation chat is the easiest first step. Tell me what you're hoping to do, and I'll tell you honestly how I can help.