FOR ADVISERS ONLY
A snapshot of our Income Protection
Our Income Protection pays out a monthly income at the end of the deferred period if the person covered is either unable to work because of an illness or injury or is unable to carry out a number of everyday tasks and meets our definition of incapacitated.
If the person covered meets our definition of terminal illness, they won't need to wait for the deferred period to end before we start making payments.
Our Income Protection is just the job to provide your clients with financial support to help them if the wheels fall off and they’re unable to work for a period of time due to illness or injury.
Research shows that 41% of people would struggle to pay their bills if they couldn’t work for six months, but only 10% of people have cover in place to protect their income*. Stats to drive home the real need to help your clients avoid the potentially devastating effect of illness on their household finances.
Traditionally, Income Protection has been seen as complex and slow to pay out when people need it most.
We’ve ‘tuned up’ our offering to give your clients a range of new benefits so they’ll get the financial help they need - when they need it.
Fracture cover of up to £4,000 per claim; with two claims allowed in a 12 month period.
A hospitalisation payment of £100 per night, that’ll start after your client spends more than six consecutive nights in hospital.
A payment of 12 months’ premiums if the person covered dies during the term of the cover.
Back to work payments... and we’ll waive the deferred period if your client is diagnosed with a terminal illness and has less than 12 months to live.
But that’s not all! We’ve developed a tiered approach to help clients protect more of their income – up to 65% of the first £15,000 of pre-tax income plus 55% of the rest.
Employed clients running their own company can include things like dividends, a nominal spouse’s salary and P11D benefits. And your self-employed clients can include certain fixed overheads.
And our adaptable claims philosophy means we do our best not to stall things while we’re waiting for financial evidence.
Flexible Income Protection
Your clients can choose their own cover. They can decide between level or increasing cover, select the length of their deferred period and choose how long they need their cover to pay out for.
Client benefits - Income Protection
- Choice of payment periods - your clients can choose from one year, two years, five years or until the cover ends, allowing them to tailor the cost to the business need.
- Reassuring - we'll cover up to 65% of the first £15,000 of pre-incapacity earnings, plus 55% of the remainder, up to £250,000 a year.
- Additional benefits - fracture cover and hospitalisation payment included as standard. These benefits don't affect the main Income Protection cover, so your clients won't need to wait for their chosen deferred period to end before making a claim.
- Back-to-work payment - clients with deferred periods of 13, 26 or 52 weeks will receive a back-to-work payment in their first and second months back at work to help with the financial impact of returning.
- Accelerated claims for terminal illness - if a client has less than 12 months to live, and meets our definition of terminal illness, they won’t need to wait for their deferred period to end before their payments start.
- Additional payment on death - if a client dies during the term of their cover, we’ll pay out a lump sum equal to 12 times the monthly premium for their Income Protection.
- Cover increase options - your clients can increase their cover in certain circumstances, without giving us any medical information.
- Personal support - Our Helping Hand Support Service provides access to independent support including a recruitment helpline which can help with sourcing cover for a key member of staff, as well as a legal helpline which can help with questions around employment law. The service also gives your clients and their partner and children access to practical and emotional support on their journey towards recovery.
- Basis – single life
- Premiums – guaranteed
- Payment of cover – Monthly income: level or increasing
- Payment period – 1 year, 2 years, 5 years or whole term
- Deferred period – 4,8,13, 26 or 52 weeks
- Term – 5-52 years
- Age when cover starts – Minimum 18 attained, Maximum 59 attained
- Age when cover ends – Maximum 70 attained
- Maximum cover amount – up to 65% of the first £15,000 of pre-incapacity earnings, plus 55% of the remainder, up to £250,000 a year
To help protect against the effects of inflation your clients can choose to increase the amount of cover over the term of their plan in one of two ways:
- Fixed rate – at a chosen rate of interest (between 2% and 5%). There’s an extra cost for this option.
- Index-linked rate – based on the change in the retail price index (between 2% and 10%). There’s an extra cost for this option.
We’ll continue making payments until the first of the following happens:
- The person covered recovers and returns to work.
- The person covered is assessed as no longer meeting the definition of incapacitated.
- The cover term ends.
- The cover payment period ends.
- The person covered dies.
We won't pay an Income Protection claim if:
- It’s the result of intentional self-inflicted injury.
- It’s the result of an exclusion shown on the cover summary.
- The person covered doesn’t meet the definition of incapacitated in our plan details.
- If any medical or other evidence is not supplied when we ask for it.
Terms and conditions
For full terms and conditions, including our definitions under Income Protection see our Plan Details.