To wonder how you get by on SSP?

Sorry @CanItReallyBeSo this isn’t a happy ending for a life changing injury. The boss will just slip him a couple of quid to get him over the next couple of weeks

he really needs professional advice

🙄

Yep silly me I should have got critical illness cover before developing diabetes at the age of 15....

You could get an alternative- there are loads. If you see a good FA or broker they'll find you something. If you've had the condition lifelong and could never have had IP then I feel for you but for the majority they developed a condition and would have been ok had they set up IP before getting ill. Which is what I'm banging on about. There are always people who are the exception to the rule.

What's different about Met Life? They don't look to offer anything for chronic illness particularly. Hospital cash plans look to pay for medical fees - thankfully with the NHS I only need pay my prescription certificate! But what I can't get is any sort of income protection to supplement SSP, which is what this thread is about.

And yes, IP could have helped the OP's friend - assuming they could get it and don't, like myself and others on this post, have any sort of underlying health conditions that effectively exclude them from accessing it.

Income protection insurance premiums are usually fairly high regardless and many people don’t ever use it. It doesn’t cover getting the sack or redundancy. I think maybe 5% of people have it.

Critical illness is cheaper but obviously only covers you for a period of time & it doesn’t cover you for every illness eg many don’t cover cancer unless it’s a certain severity.

We had to take out income protection with our morgage years ago. I guess that isn't the case these days

And to add I wasn't talking about OPs friend - that would have been solved with IP.

Define expensive though. It's relative to importance- for example I go without Sky TV (I'm not Rishi) in order to prioritise other things. To me my protection policies and contributions into pensions fall into the same category as paying my mortgage and utility bills. I'd sacrifice food if I ever somehow fell onto really hard times (move to beans on toast everyday for example - I don't mean not eat at all) to maintain them as they are very important. More people need to hold this view in my professional opinion. If this thread encourages just 1 person to seek out some sort of appropriate cover then I'm happy.

I know what my friend pays for her life insurance. What policies do you have experience of that cover those with pre existing conditions? I’m interested in the cheap ones?

Depends what the health conditions are. There are alternatives such as met life, Hospital cash plans and many others.

They're not, there are policies starting from £9 including CIC and over 50s life cover if you just need funeral cover etc which start from small amounts too.

What cover does £9 buy you?
Over 50s excludes everyone under 50 obviously….

"For the last few years, SSP has to be paid entirely by the employer since the Govt changed the rules and stopped financing any of it."

Gov stopped it many years ago, only bought it back for a short period for covid, and once again has stopped it.

Most of the public don't seem to know this.

Right. But CIC and life insurance is not going to pay out for OP's friend. Or the many other short to medium term illnesses that people end up having to go on SSP for.

So can you enlighten us of a decent income protection insurance which is affordable for people with long term health conditions? Because my broker couldn't find one.

There’s this - it’s tiny though - but I don’t know whether it is means tested. Don’t think so.

https://www.gov.uk/industrial-injuries-disablement-benefit/what-youll-get

Goodnight.

Yes but as I described above its a no brainer. A bit like convincing some people the earth isn't flat sometimes though.

That's for the individuals to decide.

Well obviously, I originally said if you have a mortgage. That excludes everyone who doesn't. It's not a law, but lots of things are lot law but are worth doing.

Here we go. I literally said to you that's a mortgage condition- so yes you're obliged to have a policy in place. Whereas those renting, without mortgages don't have to have one, and there is no law that compels you to have one. That was the point I was making.

If you have a fire for example and you don't have buildings insurance the bank will recall the debt since it can't recoup the funds through repossession. It would ruin your life and your family's and it is extremely likely something will happen to your home over a lifetime. Is it really worth risking that for the sake of around £200 a year? Just because it's not 'the law' 🙄

That isn't the law though! That's only a mortgage condition - other than that, you're not obliged to have any insurance policy on your house, or whatever else (except motor policies)

Define expensive though. It's relative to importance- for example I go without Sky TV (I'm not Rishi) in order to prioritise other things. To me my protection policies and contributions into pensions fall into the same category as paying my mortgage and utility bills. I'd sacrifice food if I ever somehow fell onto really hard times (move to beans on toast everyday for example - I don't mean not eat at all) to maintain them as they are very important. More people need to hold this view in my professional opinion. If this thread encourages just 1 person to seek out some sort of appropriate cover then I'm happy.