Income protection insurance cover can give you a replacement income
- 4TH NOVEMBER 2007
If you should become unable to work after suffering from an accident, sickness or if you should be unfortunate enough to become unemployed then you would probably struggle to carry on living your lifestyle and finding the money to pay your essential outgoings. Providing you have made sure that a policy is suited to your needs then income protection insurance cover can give you a tax free income to replace your own.
Income protection insurance cover can start to provide you with a tax free income to replace your own up to a certain amount each month which means that you don’t have to change you lifestyle or worry about where to get the money to pay your bills and living costs each month. Cover would start paying out after you had been out of work for between 31 and 90 days depending on the provider and would then continue if you remained out of work for between 12 and 24 months, again depending on the provider. The quotes for the cover can vary considerably with the cheapest being offered by standalone specialist providers. British Insurance are an ethical standalone specialist who offer income protection insurance cover which can save you up to 80% on premiums.
Income protection insurance cover isn’t suitable for everyone because all policies have exclusions in them that could make you ineligible to claim against a policy and so it would be just a waste of money. Common exclusions include being self-employed, of retirement age, having an ongoing illness and not being in full time work.
Unfortunately some providers will sell you the cover regardless of the your circumstances and this was brought to the attention of the public when in 2005 the Citizens Advice made a super complaint to the Office of Fair Trading and an investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) began.
Several high street firms were fined as a result of the investigation which is still ongoing, along with the Competition Commission conducting an in-depth inquiry into the sector. The results of the inquiry are expected to be announced in February 2009 and while some changes for the better have been seen, it is clear that some firms are still not adhering to recommendations that the FSA defined during their investigation. Mis-selling is continuing and consumers are still being treated unfairly which has left many with policies they cannot possibly hope to claim against.
In March 2008 the FSA are bringing in comparison tables which it is hoped will make the product easier to understand and choosing the right policy for your needs easier too. The tables will highlight the exclusions in a policy along with the total cost of the cover and from answering a series of questions consumers will be able to tell which policy is right for their needs. For now the best and cheapest way to buy quality income protection insurance cover is to get quotes from standalone specialists such as British Insurance and make good use of the free advice an ethical provider will give.
