Income Protection Insurance

[dailyconniptions]

I'm 55 and have recently spent HOURS trying to sort this out, for cover until my 67th birthday when the pension kicks in.

I've finally gone with Royal London and the premium is £64 per month, but this doesn't increase over the term, apart from in line with the usual RPI

Is this ultra expensive or pretty average would people say? Yes I know it depends on many factors but I'm just hoping for a bit of reassurance! I'm on NMW in my job. Thanks in advance. 🙂

Do you have over £16k in savings op?

You said that the only pension you have is through the workplace and you’ve always been on NMW

go for it op. But I can guarantee a FA would say… pension pension pension

Pip
limited capacity to work and work related activity
plus single person unemployed benefit

Exactly what I was going to say, you never know how good a policy is until you unfortunately need to claim, so check the T&C’s very carefully as cover varies from policy to policy, and the fact this one is cheaper than the others you considered, why that?

This financial adviser would be listening carefully to the client's objectives and not be suggesting a pension. HTH.

We disagree

you think a FA would not be suggesting pension to a single mortgage free woman in her mid fifties on NMW 😆 ?

I will leave you to it op. All the best

Have you checked when they would pay out? Year’s ago I had one of these income protection insurances and when I got a serious health diagnosis they told me I would need to be three month’s without income before they paid anything. I basically would have had to leave my job altogether and wait three months. I cancelled it. I did though have critical illness cover too and that paid out. (This was a long time ago so criteria may have changed).

PIP - I can see that may be possible to get.
New Style ESA - Looks to me to be means tested, so having savings may mean reduced amount or non-eligible.
AgeUK Benefit calculator gives me £0 result.

There may be some state benefits available but I would not want to rely on that.

You are doing right thing.

The people commenting don't know what they are talking about.

Everyone should have income protection insurance unless they can live off their savings until they can get their pension.

Keir Starter wanted to bring it in but the left wing loonies in his party stopped him.

If the client is looking to talk about insurance they’d have access to incase of accident or poor health a pension wouldn’t be offered because that’s not what they’re asking for and would have no benefit to them if they only needed say 6 months out of work.

Yes, I do.

No I said I have a small private pension and a couple of workplace ones. Plus I have built up the full amount of years for the full state pension.

Wouldn’t it be better to invest that amount per month?

I'd be really worried that they would take your money but look for any reason not to pay out such as you not declaring a verucca you had when you were 12.

HOW will increasing my pension payments provide enough of a monthly income if I cannot work again from say this September for the next 5 years? I cannot understand why you're saying this? I truly can't. I'm trying to!!

I only wanted an idea of what other people were paying monthly for their IP insurance, that's all. 😞

I wouldn't think so. It pays out 1200 per month until 67 if I cannot ever work again, so no. But I guess this is a gamble with all insurances.

Yes it’s the gamble, whether you actually will need it and any caveats re the t&cs.

Yes, it has a deferral period but I would get 12 weeks' sick pay from my employer plus I have some savings. It pays 1200 per month which is definitely enough for all my essential bills plus I wouldn't be running a car at all if I wasn't working so that'd help. Thanks for your comments. Very grateful for all help! 🙂

I have had to rely on mine recently and would have been in trouble without it. Very easy for people to tell you not to bother, but life can change very suddenly. I paid roughly half of what you're paying for it, but I was mid 40s when I took the policy out and mine stops at 60, so I don't think your price is too bad.

My husband had this before he retired from his self employment. It was £55 a month and it covered £1250 a month from him being 50 years old. Your monthly payment seems in line with the amount you would be receiving. It is good to have peace of mind.

It's very gung ho and irresponsible to be telling the OP she doesn't need this and even more so that no financial advisor would recommend it. I'm so thankful my FA pushed me to take mine.

State support won’t pay a mortgage. SSP is a pittance.

Payout for Income Protection tends to be quite high. Aviva published data in March 2025 about claims in 2024::
”On individual income protection policies, just over 4,300 claims were accepted last year, receiving benefit totaling more than £61 million. 90.1% of all claims received last year were paid. The average duration of a claim is six years and nine months, with the longest-running claim still in payment in 2024 standing at 39 years.”

@Hasselli wasn’t entitled to benefits. Not everyone can get them! Your arguments are ludicrous. I was in the exact same situation as the OP and had I had income protection insurance it would have been amazing.

@dailyconniptionsi now get it through work so don’t know the monthly cost but it was expensive for me because I already had a chronic illness. £54 (or whatever the price you quoted) seems amazingly reasonable for the type of protection you want

We pay similar to you, but we're younger, earn more and have young children to care for. We went Royal London too, recommended by our insurance broker when we set it up about 10ys ago. They've suggested we review it so we're in the process of doing that.