5 reasons you may need income protection
1. You’re self-employed
As a self-employed person, you can dictate your own work schedule, work from pretty much anywhere, and have creative freedom - just to name a few. However, being your own boss can have its downsides too and not being in traditional employment can mean;
- You don’t receive sick pay
- You don’t get paid holidays
- Your income may fluctuate
Although you can probably live without paid holidays and maybe you can cope with a fluctuating income, however, not receiving sick pay could leave you severely at risk when it comes to being off work with long term illness.
2. You would prefer smaller regular payments over a lump sum
One of the many benefits of having income protection in place is the way the policy can pay out. Instead of other, more commonly known types of life insurance, income protection pays out in smaller monthly bursts instead of one large lump sum.
The benefits of this are that you can treat the monthly payments as though it were your monthly income. This means that you can use this type of protection to pay for the essentials and focus your energy on your recovery.
3. You’re single with no dependents
One of the biggest advantages of cover such as critical illness insurance, or whole of life cover is that the pay-out will be primarily used to ensure that your dependents do not suffer financially. Whilst the same can be said about income protection, it is also one of the best life insurance policies to have if you have no dependants as well. The reason for this being, you can tailor exactly how much coverage this policy can provide.
The way income protection works is by paying out a selected percentage of your income each month, typically most providers will let you cover up to 60% of your income. Therefore, if you know you would be able to get by with a lower percentage of your income then, you can tailor the policy to cover you for a lower percentage of your income.
If you are curious about how much an income protection plan could cost you, then you’re in luck as we have created an income protection calculator. By using our calculator, you can find out an estimate of how much this policy could cost you in just 30 seconds - click the button below to try now!
4. You rely solely on your monthly income to get by
With the cost of living crisis affecting everyone, even if you do have savings, it is best to keep them as just that - savings.
Relying on your income to get by each month can leave you feeling on edge, as if the worst were to happen and you couldn’t work for a while, you could be left struggling.
Having an income protection policy in place can negate this risk by covering you against a wider set of circumstances than other types of insurance policies. If you were to become ill or injured and unable to work as a result then this policy could financially protect you.
5. The risk may be bigger than you think
No one likes to think about the worst case scenario but it is crucial to be aware of the facts. According to the Labour Force Survey an estimated 38.8 million working days were lost due to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries in 2019-20, with stress, depression and musculoskeletal related illness making up the majority of these days.
An income protection policy can financially protect you against all of these illnesses and more. One of the many advantages of income protection is that unlike other types of life insurance, this policy covers you against mental illness. For example, if you had to take an extended period of time off work due to stress, your income protection policy could pay out each month until you are mentally able to return to work.
At Busy Bee, we are dedicated to making life insurance as simple as possible. We work with you to understand your needs and circumstances, to be able to find you the right protection at an affordable price. Click the button below to get started today!