He says: “Income Protection replaces your salary if you are too ill to work due to illness or disability so it is the most important policy to recommend when advising a client how best to protect their finances. It will continue to pay out either until the end of the term, which can run until retirement age, or until the client is well enough to return to work.”
Going ‘private’
The NHS is an area that even the traditional ‘right’ of the political spectrum tend to defend. In fact, around 11 per cent of the population choose private medical insurance and approximately 1m operations are performed privately every year.
The most comprehensive PMI plans tend to cost between £50-£100 a month depending on factors like age and health and give customers a choice of hospitals, shorter wait times, access to specialist consultants as well as drugs and treatment, particularly for cancer, not accessible through the NHS.
For many people, PMI is not only a financial decision but also a political one: the debate that healthcare should never be about ability to pay at any level tends to arise.
The ABI’s Helen White stated recently on this topic: “Currently the state saves £120m a year from the 11 per cent of working families who have taken out private insurance as a safety net, or whose employer provides it for them.
“If the 60% of households who would not get adequate support from the state all had the same, the Treasury would save a total of over £660m, and those households would be better protected against the unexpected loss of income.”
Wayne Pontin, Chairman of the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries, believes this is an area where PMI plays an important role.
He notes: “For example, with conditions such as cancer, most PMI providers have developed their cancer benefits to be more inclusive, and hence cover drugs and biological therapies that sometimes are not universally available via the NHS because of budget restraints”
Who cares?
When a policyholder dies, who comforts their family? When a child or spouse is sick, who cares for them? There are actually two main types of benefit that cover this that are not too well known:
Bereavement allowance: Previously known as ‘widow’s pension’, this can be claimed if you’re a widow, widower or surviving civil partner aged between 45 and state pension age. You can claim for up to 52 weeks from the date your husband, wife or civil partner died.
