Holloway Friendly Income Protection [REVIEW]

Who Are Holloway Friendly?

Holloway Friendly has a longstanding history dating back to the 1800s. Back then, it was originally known as The Original Holloway Friendly Society Limited.

Just as its founder George Holloway intended, it remains a mutual society today which continues to provide Income Protection to support its members through sickness and injury.

With more than 140 years of experience under its belt, Holloway has grown substantially and expanded its range of protection over time. Its Income Protection offering includes both its Purely Protect policy and this One2Protect plan.

As a mutual society, Holloway is owned by its members. It therefore doesn’t answer to any shareholders, so its focus is purely on its members and making protection more accessible to everyone.

Holloway Friendly’s One2Protect Income Protection offers great flexibility, allowing you to tailor the cover to your specific needs. You can choose the premium type, claim period, benefit amount and waiting period that’s best for you.

Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

Holloway Friendly’s One2Protect Income Protection

Policy Overview

• Offers a flexible policy for those in low risk occupations.
• Choose to cover between £216 and £5,000 per month.
• One2Protect gives the option of 1 and 2 year claim periods as well as full term.

Documentation

What Does One2Protect Income Protection Cover?

Holloway Friendly offers multiple Income Protection policies. The below details are for its One2Protect product, which is aimed largely at lower-risk workers, such as those in office-based roles.

Holloway also caters to manual workers and others in higher-risk jobs via its Purely Protect policy.

Key Benefits

Terminal Illness Benefit

As with its other Income Protection policies, Holloway Friendly pays a lump sum benefit equal to 6 times your monthly benefit if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness (given less than 12 months to live).

You’ll receive this regardless of whether you’re already making a claim.

Automatic Waiver of Premium

In the event of a claim, Holloway Friendly automatically pays your premiums for you so you have one less thing to worry about.

Benefit Guarantee

Unlike Purely Protect, One2Protect includes an automatic benefit guarantee of £1,500.

As with all insurers, if your income falls between you taking out the policy and needing to claim, you’re eligible for a smaller benefit at the point of claim. This is because your benefit is based on your recent provable earnings.

However, Holloway offers a benefit guarantee that means, in this situation, you’ll still get the lower of £1,500 per month or your monthly benefit.

No Deduction of State Benefits

If you’re getting state benefits when you make a claim, Holloway’s One2Protect policy won’t reduce your payout as a result.

However, the payout may affect the level of state benefits you are entitled to, especially income-based benefits, depending on the government’s rules at the time.

Indexed Cover Available

You can choose to index-link your Income Protection. Should you choose this option, your benefit amount rises with inflation based on the Retail Prices Index (RPI). The maximum increase is 10% per year.

Life Change / Guaranteed Insurability

Without any further medical evidence, Holloway Friendly lets you to increase your benefit if you go through one of a list of ‘life events’.

These life events include:

• Marriage / civil partnership
• Birth / legal adoption of a child
• Salary increase or promotion including a salary increase (increase must be at least 20%)
• Change of job including a salary increase
• Taking out a new mortgage / increasing existing mortgage
• Rent goes up due to new rental property or because a landlord imposes an increase.

If any of the above happen you must inform Holloway Friendly within 3 months of them taking place and provide evidence of the change.

You can only increase your benefit once you’ve held the policy for 12 months and by the lower of £9,000 per year or 50% of your initial benefit. Any increase cannot take your benefit to above 60% of your salary or the total maximum benefit of £60,000 per year.

Additional Benefits

Rehabilitation Benefit

If you can return to work after serious illness / injury but initially only on a part time basis or in a reduced role, you can put in a clam for a rehabilitation benefit.

If Holloway approves this claim, it will pay part of your benefit for up to a year to top up your part-time / reduced hours salary.

Proportionate Benefit

If after suffering from an accident or illness you can return to work but not in your old role, you may need to retrain in a new, lower paid role.

If so, Holloway Friendly will continue to pay a proportion of your original benefit amount for up to a year to top up your new lower salary.

Medical Expenses Benefit

After an accident or injury your doctor may recommend a specific treatment or operation which they think will speed up your recovery. If this is the case you can apply for a lump sum to put towards it.

Holloway Friendly will consult with their Chief Medical Officer to see if they are in agreement and if so will offer a contribution towards your treatment.

Premium Holiday Benefit

If you need to take a break from paying your premiums you can take a premium holiday. This means you can pause your cover and premiums for reasons such as taking time off work to study, redundancy or just having a break from work to spend quality time with family.

Although during the time that you pause your cover you won’t be able to make a claim, you can restart cover when you need to without having to answer any additional health questions.

This benefit can be used once you’ve had your One2Protect Income Protection policy for 36 months. After restarting your cover you must have been back at work for 3 months before being able to make a claim.

Member Assistance Programme

As a member of Holloway Friendly, you will have access to their member assistance programme which is provided by Care First.

This programme offers telephone counselling services and advice from specialists on topics such as employment, health, and consumer rights.

You can use this service any time by contacting their 24 hour helpline and don’t need to be claiming in order to do so. It also offers an interpreter service in 150 languages.

Key Comparison Points

Cover Best for Lower Risk Occupations

Unlike Purely Protect, One2Protect is aimed at people in lower risk occupations. As a result of this if you are in a job role which is classed as high risk, another policy / provider would be more suited to you.

Short Term Cover Option Available

Holloway Friendly’s One2Protect offers both Long-Term Income Protection and Short-Term Income Protection.

Long-term cover pays out each month you’re ill / injured right up until retirement if you can never work again. Meanwhile, with short-term cover, you choose whether you want the policy to pay out for 1 or 2 years in the event of a claim.

Short-term cover is cheaper. The option to choose it rather than the more comprehensive long-term protection means you can tailor the policy to meet your needs and budget.

Premiums Have a Reviewable Element After 5 Years

With most other insurers, if you choose age-banded premiums your premiums can only rise each year in line with your age. This annual increase is laid out clearly in your policy documents so you always know exactly what you’ll pay year-on-year.

However, with One2Protect, Holloway’s age-banded premiums include a clause that lets the mutual adjust your premiums after you’ve held the policy for 5 years. This might increase or decrease your premiums based on factors such as the:

• Number, cost and length of claims Holloway has received
• Society’s running costs
• Length of time members hold their plans
• Impact of tax, legislation, capital requirements or interest rates.

This is much more like reviewable premiums after the initial 5 years than the age-banded premiums most other insurers offer.

Rental Specific Guaranteed Insurability

Holloway Friendly’s guaranteed insurability has a rental specific option with its One2Protect policy.

Many other insurers only allow you to increase your benefit if your housing costs rise due to increasing your mortgage. However, One2Protect lets you increase your benefit if your rent increases when you move to a new rental property or if your landlord increases your rent.

Hazardous Hobbies

If you regularly participate in any hazardous hobbies or activities, you can choose whether you want to exclude and illness / injury they cause from your policy to avoid increasing the cost of cover.

Many other insurers don’t offer this option and instead either charge you more as a result of your hobbies or simply exclude them outright without charging you less.

Twice-Monthly Benefits

Holloway Friendly pay out twice-monthly benefits, which means you will receive one benefit payment on the 15th of the month and the other on the last working day. Payments will start after your deferral period has ended.

Most other insurers offer your benefit just once each month.

Compare Income Protection Quotes & Get Expert Advice

As you can see, there are a lot of points to consider when comparing insurers. With so many factors in play, it can be time-consuming to pull up key information across every single insurer in the market, so why not ask an adviser for help?

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For help and fee-free advice on Income Protection, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.