What Is An Income Protection Deferred Period?

The deferred period (also known as the excess period on Accident, Sickness and Unemployment policies) is the amount of time you have to be out of work due to illness, injury or redundancy before a claim can be paid.

The longer the deferred period on your policy the lower your premiums will be. Insurers don’t have to pay out immediately when a claimant has a deferred period, which is what reduces the initial monthly cost of premiums.

You’ll only start receiving your benefit entitlement from the insurer after the deferred period has passed.

How Long After The Deferred Period Is The Claim Paid?

With Short-Term Income Protection (also known as Accident, Sickness and Unemployment Cover), there’s often an option to choose a deferred period with Back to Day 1 cover. So when a claim arises, benefit payments will be paid back to the start of your claim.

With most traditional Long-Term Income Protection policies, which tend to only cover illness and injury, the shortest deferred period available is often 4 weeks.

For more information you can read our guide about setting your Income Protection deferred period.

If you are looking to take out Income Protection and are considering your options please do not hesitate to pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk. We’re here to help.