Income Protection Insurance

Income protection insurance replaces your income when you are unable to work due to accident, sickness or unemployment. As it replaces your income, it is called as income protection insurance.

It is also known by other terms such as ASU insurance, long term income protection insurance, permanent health insurance etc.

These policies will pay you a monthly amount to replace your income, when you are unable to work and not paid due to injury, illness or redundancy.

Income protection insurance gives you the peace of mind that you will receive regular monthly benefit until you are back to work.

• You can choose how you want to be paid – Some policies pay until your retirement age. Which means if you are unable to work and make a claim, the claim payments will continue until your retirement age. You can also choose payment periods such as 12 months, 24 months, 5 years etc.
• You can choose how quickly you want to be paid – This is also referred to as excess periods. The lower the excess period, the sooner you will be paid when you make a claim. You can pick 3 days, 1 week, 14 days, 30 days and all the way up to 12 months. The higher the excess period, lower will be your premiums.

Increasingly many long-term income protection providers offer 12 months benefit payment option, and the long term is not often used.

While the exact eligibility will vary from insurer to insurer, cover type you select, your employment type and conditions, broadly speaking they are as follows:

1. You should be a permanent resident in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man;
2. You should be employed, self-employed, or a contract worker, working for at least 16 hours a week:
3. You should be over 18 years of age or under 64 years old

In our short term policies range, we have 3 types of policies:

• Accident & Sickness only
• Unemployment only and
• Comprehensive unemployment, accident and sickness policy

In our long term policies range of policies, we offer accident and accident & sickness covers.

This depends on the insurer. With some, you will be excluded for your existing medical conditions and conditions you have had in the past 12 - 24 months. With others, you will be allowed to make a claim after the first 12 months of your policy start date.

With most long-term policies, you will undergo an in-depth medical interview and based on that, the insurer will explain your exclusions.

As part of our service, we will scan the whole market for you. Find an insurer that does not exclude your medical conditions or have the least amount of exclusions.

There are no requirements on how long you need to be employed. The important thing is that you should not be signed off sick when you are buying the policy.

Yes, you can. With unemployment policies, the exclusion period may be waived off. It is dependant on how long your existing policy has been in force and whether you have made any claims on your current policy.

Best Insurers advisors will give the required information and provide detailed quotes by email. You should ask for policy summary and the full set of policy wordings, read them carefully before you decide to buy.

Income protection policies are replacement for your monthly income, hence the payments will be monthly. If you want a lumpsum payment, you will have to choose critical illness covers. The downside of critical illness covers is they are based on selected medical conditions while income protection insurance pays regardless of medical condition so long as you are unable to work.

When you return to work, your policy stays as is and no changes need to be made. This will ensure that if you ever have to make another claim, the policy is there for you.

Life Insurance covers you with a lumpsum payment in event of your death.

Mortgage Insurance is a type of life insurance that will pay off your mortgage in the event of your death.

Short term income protection covers you for loss of income and will pay you up to a maximum of 12 months when you make a claim.

Long term income protection covers you for loss of income and will pay you until your retirement age when you make a claim.

With several short term income protection policies, there will be no deductions to your benefit amount. However, with long term income protection policies, depending on the insurer, your statutory sick pay may be deducted from the benefit amount. Best Insurance can give you guidance on this when you buy your policy.

Your benefit payments are income replacement and not an earning. As they are classed as benefit payments, they are tax free. No national insurance or income tax is payable on the claim benefit payments.

Yes, we are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Best Risk Management and Financial Service Limited is the full name of our company. Our FCA number is 583497.