Has anyone taken out income protection insurance recently?

[tentative3]

Trying to get my financial house in order and looking at insurance. Most of what I've read seems to recommend income protection insurance as a good place to start rather than critical illness or life insurance. However, money supermarket have a warning saying that due to covid-19 the unemployment aspect of income protection insurance is unavailable. So if I had an accident or got sick but remained employed they would pay but I deduce if I lost my job as a result of that they wouldn't, which seems a bit pointless.

Has anyone taken it out recently (post covid) who can recommend a company to me?

It's impossible to get unemployment insurance right now. I have a long standing policy that pays out a certain amount for 12 months if I lost my job and was basically advised by the broker that I wasn't even allowed to make any changes to my policy as it would be refused

I've had mine for many years but when I enquired with my accountant about changing it, he told me it's impossible right now. Nobody is offering them

I underwrite insurance. Right now I’d pick a life and critical illness policy. Income protection only ever pays out on an illness. If your job gives you a good sick pay there’s no need really unless you anticipate a long illness. However if you became that unwell it’s likely you’d be able to claim on a critical illness plan anyway. IPB is very strictly underwritten and hard to get at the price you’re quoted. I would stay away and look at critical Illness if you have good sick pay

Thanks for the responses. @Lilac95 that's interesting, I'd read it was the more useful product but to be honest this is something I'm shamefully uninformed about and finding it all a bit of a minefield. I have 6 months full and 6 months half sick pay but a job in which the longer I stay the harder I would find it to find an alternative paying anything like the money I earn, which is what had lead me towards income protection. I will keep reading and looking although I'm worried I'm just procrastinating. I guess I need a broker but I also don't even know where to start with that.

Income protection only ever pays out on an

I think the OP is looking for income protection in the event of redundancy - redundancy is far more likely to happen at the moment than critical illness

Yes I think I'm probably looking for 2 products, one to cover me long term if I become unable to do my job through sickness or accident, and one for both of us in the event of redundancy (much less likely for me than OH).

@tentative3

Yes you can usually get them as part of one policy but the unemployment protection part is the one that's impossible to get right now.

I doubt you will be able to get redundancy insurance for at least 18 months or more due to the current situation so I would just plough as much as you can into savings until they come back on the market

If you are renting it's not as important as you would likely get universal credit - we found that because our house is mortgaged your get no housing payments as part of universal credit hence why we took the redundancy insurance policy

You need life insurance and get 200k extra on top of mortgage

^Christmasfairy2020

You need life insurance and get 200k extra on top of mortgage^

Just any random figure?
And how will life insurance pay OPs bills if she can’t work?

I work in this sphere. Unemployment cover was pulled off the market in March and I suspect won't return for a good year or more.

Whether you need critical illness or income protection depends on whether you need a lump sum or a monthly benefit if off work long term sick.