Income protection

[AnneShirley18]

Hi, I am a supply teacher, single and own my own property. Can anyone offer any advice or experience on income protection insurance. The older I get, the more I see how precarious my situation is. 😊 thanks

Hello,

I've just recently taken out income protection for my husband, paying approx £23pm. But if he was to fall I'll or get injured in his work it would be invaluable to keeping us afloat. That's what you need to weigh up, could you sustain the life you live if you were off sick or injured, or laid off. Could you manage alone on any benefit entitlement you maybe able to claim. If not, it's definitely worth investing in. But be sure to read the policy carefully to see what's covered and what's not.

Thank you for your response. You are rught, I definitely see the value of it. How did you research which company go go with or did you have recommendations?

I have income protection with Zurich and pay £41 a month. I did lots of research and they ended up being the best for me.

If you're a supply teacher and not on a permanent contract you might struggle to get cover. They assess you quite thoroughly beforehand to presumably determine risk.

You generally need a permanent job for income protection as it provides a percentage of salary if you’re too I’ll too work. Critical illness pays a lump sum for certain serious illnesses so might be an option

You might be better off talking your requirements through with a broker, and critical illness might be more appropriate for you

I simply googled it, I think I used compare the market, went through a few of the options and picked one that best suited our needs. Bare in mind income protection doesn't cover 100% of your income, rather 85%, and don't be tempted to lie about your income.
But, we pay £23pm and also get some other perks through the insurance, it really is rather for peace of mind though, my husband broke his wrist last year and luckily he's an absolute trooper and still went to work (manual job) with a brace on it. Purely because we couldn't afford for him to be off work and receiving basic SSP. So lessons learnt and we made the decision to purchase.

Have a google given your circumstances, they'll be information available as to weather it's something you could have and if it's suitable. If not, then critical illness insurance maybe a option but that doesn't cover for things such as broken bones, rather, serious illnesses/terminal. Or where you asking more for the redundancy side of cover? X

I had to make a claim on my income protection policy and found it all very straightforward. My policy covers me for £600 a month, which is only a fraction of my salary but enough that I didn’t have to cut back on any essentials.

If you’re off sick and too ill to work you only get £84.80 a week in benefits, assuming you’ve been paying NI. That’s an absolute pittance. Topping it up with a relatively modest income protection payment gives you so much more security and quality of life.

A major bonus is that it covers all sorts of illnesses which critical illness cover doesn’t, for example long covid. You can keep the cost down by deferring the start date - mine didn’t pay out until I had been off work for a year.

I’m doubtful you would be eligible for income protection without a permanent contract as has been mentioned earlier.

In similar circumstances I paid off my mortgage asap, built up a savings fund equivalent to 2 years income, as well as taking out critical illness cover.
I also took on a permanent lower paid part- time role (half day a week) purely for the access to sick pay that would pay out a small amount over a decent time frame.

It may also be useful to know

The last couple of companies that I worked FT for, I paid into the work pension

I also received free life insurance/death in service
Plus some free contributions by the employer on top of the contributions that I paid into the pension