You like the majority of homeowners rely heavily on your monthly income when it comes to paying the mortgage and all associated bills. Of course you also have to pay all of your other monthly outgoings including food and utility bills not to mention others. If you should suffer from a loss of income after falling ill or suffering an accident then you might have a loss of income for many months. The same would apply to being made redundant as jobs are not easy to find. This could leave you in a very tight spot and add more anxiety to an already stressful situation. Luckily there is a type of insurance that can be taken out in the form of income protection.
Income insurance to cover a loss of income this way is called income payment protection. Income protection insurance on the other hand is a similar policy but this would payout over a longer term. Income payment protection would supply you with a replacement income between the 30th and the 90th days of you becoming unemployed or suffering accident, illness or becoming unemployed. It would then carry on paying out for either a period of 12 months or 24 months; this is defined in the terms and conditions of the policy and need to be checked before taking out the cover. Some payment protection specialists would also backdate to the first date of your unemployment or of you being ill or sick. Once the policy has reached its term then it would simply cease.
Income protection would supply you with an income but it would not include redundancy. The cover has a longer deferment period but it would continue providing you with an income for right up to your retirement age if the policy was needed.
All payment protection policies come with some exclusions which you do have to check to ensure suitability. However providing you have checked them against your current lifestyle you would have a plan on which to fall back on if and when you needed it.
It is essential to have something to fall back on and income protection is the best way to do so. If you are relying on savings as a form of back up then you could find yourself in trouble. You would not know how long it would take you to recuperate or how long it would take you to find work. Any savings might run dry if you had to pay all of your essential outgoings with the money. Relying on benefits from the State could also be a huge let down as you might not be entitled to receive help and even if you are the money you had to live on would probably not be enough. Protection would allow you to take the time to recover and get back to earning a living. In the case of unemployment it would allow you peace of mind when attending interviews. You would not have to struggle or juggle bills around with the hope of catching up on missed payments.
Simon Burgess is Managing Director of the award-winning British Insurance ( http://www.britishinsurance.com ), a specialist provider of low cost income payment protection insurance (PPI), mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) and loan payment protection insurance.
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