Income protection - will it meet my needs

gillbee

I'm considering income protection as I am the primary wage earner. From reading around - I think as long as I cover myself for a suitable number of years of payout then if I was out of work from illness, redundancy etc I would have an income.

My employer provides death in service cover (which would pay off my mortage and leave a good bit for my partner) so I don't need to consider that until I switch jobs. I am leaning away from crit illness cover as it seems to be very specific on what it will pay out for.

Am I missing anything obvious? I just want to ensure I can pay the bills and mortgage should something happen. I don't have any debt apart from my mortgage and have about 1/3 of my annual income in savings and no dependants.

Thanks for any advise.

Beddie

Go for "proper" income protection through an IFA and cover yourself up to age 65 (or whenever you want to retire.) You can normally have about 60% of your salary covered, but at least it's tax free.

It ain't cheap!

homer_j_3

Critical illness does a separate job to Income Protection so you cannot compare the two.

I would seek professional advice and have a budget in mind to what you want to spend on this cover. Your adviser will discuss what you want and need and then do the best for that budget for you.

gillbee

I suppose my thoughts were that if I couldn't work through critical illness then income protection would pay the bills.
I have decent private medical which was about the only thing I thought I might need a lump of cash for.
I think I'll get a chat with an IFA and explore my options further.
Thanks.

Hippychick

I have income protection cover (for illness - known as permanent health insurance) arranged for by my employers, the policy is with Unum and they pay me 75% of my salary, unfortunately I am in a position whereby I am having to make a claim.

The payments I receive are certainly NOT tax free so do bear that in mind, that said this policy has been my lifeline, there is no way I would survive on Incapacity benefit alone.