You may have seen/heard the Advertising Campaign Friends First have just launched for their Income Protection Product.
I most definitely welcome such a campaign which raises awareness of the need for Income Protection and in truth, makes us think about what would happen should the situation arise where we are unable to work due to illness or injury. We do not like thinking of such eventualities but it is necessary in order to ensure we have a proper plan in place should the unexpected happen.
Similiar to life cover as I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog, Income Protection is under purchased by the general public who routinely have to purchase other insurances such as car, house & mortgage insurance. And whilst these are extremely valuable policies to have, we do have to ask ourselves the question – if we had no income coming in how would we pay for these plans? Not to mention all the other expenses incurred in day to day living. The state illness benefit is only €188 weekly, and many including the self employed, are not even entitled to this.
Income Protection I think is also a plan which is misunderstood. So put simply, what is it?
Income protection insurance is a long-term insurance policy to help you if you can’t work because you’re ill or injured.
• It replaces part of your income if you can’t work because you become ill or disabled.
• It pays out until you can start working again, or until you retire, die or the end of the policy term – whichever is sooner.
• There’s a waiting period before the payments start. You generally set payments to start after your sick pay ends if you have such an entitlement. The longer you wait, the lower the monthly payments.
• You can claim as many times as you need to, while the policy lasts.
Based on the above, it would obviously be an invaluable benefit to have, should it be required.
It is definitely an area which should be assessed with you to see if it is required and we can advise of all options. For instance if you are entitled to sick pay for 6 months through your employment, then we defer payment of the income protection plan for 6 months, thereby reducing the monthly premium. You may have in place an emergency fund/savings funds thereby again giving you the option to take out a plan with a longer deferred period (with payment starting at a later stage).

We protect our house and our car, perhaps even our phone! How can we even think about not protecting ourselves?
If you wish to consider your options, do give us a call.