The cover most likely to actually pay out
The statistic worth thinking about: in any given year, working-age adults are around six times more likely to be unable to work for an extended period due to illness or injury than they are to die. Most households have life insurance and no income protection — which is the wrong way round for the actual risk distribution.
The mortgage doesn’t care why you can’t pay it. A few months of statutory sick pay followed by a fall onto Universal Credit usually means the household budget breaks before the year is out, and we’ve seen too many people forced to sell up after a long illness — not because they didn’t want to keep the home, but because the maths stopped working.
What good income protection looks like
A well-structured policy has a few essential ingredients:
- A monthly benefit of roughly 50–70% of your gross income, paid tax-free, until you can return to work or the policy term ends.
- A deferred period chosen to fit any existing sick pay — usually 1, 2, 3, 6 or 12 months. Longer waits cost less; shorter waits help self-employed people more.
- An own-occupation definition of incapacity, where the insurer pays out if you can’t do your specific job, not just any job. The gap between own-occupation and the cheaper “any occupation” wording is meaningful — we always steer toward own-occupation where the insurer offers it.
- A long benefit term — ideally to retirement age, so a permanent condition doesn’t leave you exposed in your 50s. Shorter-term policies (often labelled “budget” or “two-year”) are cheaper but cap the pay-out, sometimes well before the issue has resolved.
Setting cover up properly
The application process for income protection is more involved than for life — insurers want a clear picture of your job, your health, and any history of time off work. That detail matters because exclusions written in at application time are what determine whether the policy actually pays out years later when you need it.
We take time over the application: which insurer to apply to first based on your specific medical history, how the proposal form gets completed, and whether to opt for medical-evidence underwriting (slower, but tends to result in fewer exclusions) or rapid telephone underwriting. The end result is a policy that does what you bought it for if you need to claim — which is the only metric that matters.
How we work
A first conversation usually takes 30 minutes. We’ll ask about your work, your earnings, any sick pay, your existing protection, and the basics of your health. From that we’ll suggest the right shape of cover and the insurer most likely to accept the case at standard rates. If you’re self-employed, freelance or on a contract, the conversation looks slightly different — we’ll talk through the deferred period and definition that fits your real situation rather than a salaried-employee default.