What Is The UK's Best Income Protection Insurance In 2024?
Read our 2024 Best Income Protection Insurance UK Guide, get expert regulated advice and compare online quotes from Aviva, Vitality and other top UK insurers...
When it comes down to safe guarding your income if you have to take time off work due to accident or illness it’s important to fully understand your sick pay entitlement either from your employer or the government (SSP – Statutory Sick Pay).
The weekly rate for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is £116.75 for up to 28 weeks
If you’re currently researching a personal insurance policy such as Income Protection and you’re eligible for sick pay from your current employer it’s a good idea to find out the terms of your employment contract so you know at what point in time your sick pay would stop and your insurance policy would kick in (the deferred period).
If you’re in a position where you receive no sick pay benefit from your employer you are entitled to receive statutory sick pay from the government. This currently amounts to £116.75 per week and is paid for up to 28 weeks after a claim has been made. As you can imagine, this amount wouldn’t cover many of your basic necessities such as mortgage or rent payments, bills and food.
Take a look at our shortfall chart below to see the difference between our example salaries and the state statutory sick pay benefit.
Although you might think that it won’t happen to you, there is always a possibility of becoming too ill to work.
In our recent survey we found that 1 in 5 people needed to take off at least 3 months during their working life and an Ageas Protect report found that 1 in 3 people who have been off work for longer than 6 months are still unable to work 5 years later.
With many of us having limited savings and only a short period of sick pay (if any) more and more workers are turning to income protection insurance to provide the peace of mind they are looking for.
“Income Protection is the one protection policy every working adult should consider.” Which? Money
The deferment period is the period of time before your policy will begin to accumulate benefit after you go off work. For example, with a deferred period of one month the policy would start to accumulate benefit between month one and two.
What this means is that as with all income protection insurance plans it usually makes sense to set the deferred period equal to the length of time you would receive full company paid sick leave. Some companies may pay full sick pay for as long as a year but most firms pay minimal sick pay and some companies pay no sick pay at all.
In our Protection Survey we found that 24% of workers reported that they did not receive any employer provided sick pay and over half of the sample (58%) stated that they would receive 3 months or less in sick pay.
The longer you defer your policy from kicking in the cheaper the premiums will be. With this in mind, it’s also a good idea to think about if you could survive for a period of time on any savings or other sources such as a spouses income.
From simply finding out whether an insurers premiums are guaranteed or wanting to know the claims statistics for a particular provider. To help you find the right policy that suits your needs it’s really is important to speak to an expert who can guide you through the options.
We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to let us help.