Why should you have Income Protection?
One of the cheapest and easiest ways to buy your Income Protection Online.

Let's say you develop a long-term illness or have an accident and the company you work for doesn't provide you with any benefits; what would you do for money? If you're struggling to find the answer then Income Protection may be for you.

The monthly instalments this cover provides are intended to soften the blow caused by unexpected time off work and the subsequent loss of income. Ensuring your standard of living doesn't also take a hit is paramount, and so these payments can be used to foot the bill when it comes to your mortgage, weekly expenses, as well as a few small luxuries you'd still like to enjoy.

Four out of five households in the UK have home contents insurance to protect our 'stuff'. We can sleep soundly in our beds knowing that our prized possessions will be compensated for, should the worst happen.

But what about the income that enables us to accumulate all of this stuff in the first place - how many of us bother to protect that? Less than one in 10 of us, in fact. More of us actually insure our pets and our mobile phones than we do our incomes.

And while the statistics show that we are four times more likely to suffer a critical illness than die before the age of 65, you'll be surprised to know three times more of us have life insurance cover than income protection.

Income protection could cover up to 60% of your usual income – enough to guarantee the essentials if you can no longer work. Meanwhile, state benefits will provide an income of up to £400 a month. Could you live on that?

All of these facts emphasise the real value that we as consumers should be placing on our income, and Income Protection is the means of safeguarding this.

Before you buy, it is important to evaluate your own financial situation and what other factors may affect this. So, take a look at our helpful checklist we've compiled to aid you when deciding.

• One in three of us will be diagnosed with some type of cancer in our lifetimes
• 50% of cancer sufferers aged between 25-44 survive for at least three years
• In the UK, 300,000 people, 1 in 200 of us, suffer a heart attack every year, 50% of whom survive.
• Every year, 150,000 people in the UK, that's almost 1 in 400, suffer a stroke. One third of these happen to people under 65 and more than 500,000 stroke survivors in the UK today are living with disabilities caused by a stroke.
• Thirty two percent of men will suffer a critical illness between 40 and 70.

Ask yourself – if I lost my income would it mean I couldn't pay my bills either immediately or further down the line? If the answer is 'yes' you should consider income protection insurance.

You're most likely to need it if you're self-employed or employed and you don't have employer's sick pay benefit or savings to fall back on. However there are a variety of other circumstances when having income protection would provide an invaluable safety net.

• You would receive employer's sick pay – if you have an employee benefits package which gives you an income so you can keep paying the mortgage and other bills. But remember to check how long you are covered for before this benefit ends and consider how you will cope if you are still unable to return to work at this point. In addition, if it is deemed that you will never be well enough to return to this particular job, your employer ultimately has the right to terminate your employment. How would you cope if this happened?
• You would be entitled to government benefits – you may want to check out how much you would get before deciding against buying income protection as you may be entitled to less than you think.
• You have enough in savings to support yourself – remember that your savings may need to see you through a long period while you're unable to work and once they're gone, they're gone. You may be better off, if you can afford the premiums, taking out income protection and keeping your savings for other eventualities.
• Your partner or family would support you – your partner may have enough income to cover everything the two of you need or you may have grown up children who would support you. But again, you need to think about how long this situation could continue.

Remember too that, while you are in receipt of your income protection payments, you need to keep on paying the premiums so you need to set your premiums at a level you can afford to balance your current budget against the peace of mind that having income protection cover gives.