Help Needed!

roscoredbull82

I am currently self employed, wife works part time and have four kids. After an illness to a family member who is also self employed, I am concerned about my finances if I am off work for a long period. I have life insurance just now but worry that if something was to happen to me ie broken leg, illness etc that would stop me working for a while. Having a large family we need a regular income coming into the house. Is there anything I can get that would pay me a set amount of money if I was off work over a set period. Any help and guidance with this would be a great help.

forgotmyname

Difficult being self employed. Your work maybe erratic and what stops you
saying i cant be bothered this week i will claim a sicky.

kingstreet

Permanent health insurance is the contract you should consider. It pays a monthly benefit to replace your income in the event of you being unable to work due to accident or sickness.

The benefit is paid after a qualifying period, the deferred period, which you can set according to your needs and your budget. The minimum is normally four weeks. The benefit is paid until you are fit enough to return to work, or until the end of the policy term. You can take this cover to run until retirement.

Make sure you choose a plan with the "own occupation" definition of disability used. This means you are paid the benefit if you can't do your own job. Cheaper plans may offer "work tasks" or "any occupation" which may end up with you not getting a payout because you could work in an office, for example, when you are a plumber.

You can normally insure upto 60% of your income and as the benefit is paid tax-free, this is usually enough to replace your net income from actually working.

McKneff

As long as you are up to date with the correct NI contributions you would be able to claim ESA.

weighty1_2

forgotmyname wrote: »

Difficult being self employed. Your work maybe erratic and what stops you
saying i cant be bothered this week i will claim a sicky.

And his work may not be erratic at all and he could contact to a company for 40hrs a week every week!

The fact that a doctor will need to sign a sick note and that he would be financially worse off by claiming on a PHI plan is what would stop him throwing a sicky, plus the fact that if he wants to continue getting work then this is hardly the best way of doing it.

OP, as has been mentioned, I'd suggest you also look for a long term income protection plan (formerly called permanent health insurance). As Kingstreet pointed out, look for one which has an "own occupation" definition of incapacity.

Some providers allow plans which start to pay out after just 3-days illness and are then backdated to day one. You pay significantly more for short deferrment periods but it's all dependent on your monthly budget, savings, personal circumstances as to how soon the plan would kick in.

Speak to an Independent Financial Adviser or a specialist protection adviser if you are at all unsure