While no one likes to consider the fact they could become unemployed by such as redundancy, it does happen. Firms lay people off every day and one of them could be you in the future. If this were to happen then you would be struggling when it came to keeping up with your essential outgoings. In some cases, you would have to cut back drastically to ensure you had the money needed. Income protection cover can replace your income up to a certain amount each month. This would ensure your lifestyle could be maintained.



Essential outgoings are such things as your loan, credit card or mortgage repayments. However, there is more to consider than just these. You also have to take into account every bill that you pay each month. The majority of individuals pay council tax and water rates bills and then have such as electric and gas and food bills to pay. You then have to figure into the scenario such as cable TV and any other general monthly outgoings. When all of these are taken into account, it adds up to a tidy sum. While you might have redundancy money, a big dent would be made in it if you remained out of work for any length of time.

Income protection cover can be taken with a specialist in payment protection. This is the cheapest way to secure a quality policy, which is backed with experience in selling products of this nature. It also ensures that you gain access to the vital information needed to be able to choose the policy most suitable.

Cover from standalone specialists will vary in both the terms and conditions and the cost. With this in mind, getting several quotes is essential to get the cheapest policy. You also need to compare the terms and conditions along with the cost. This is where you can find if the policy would be backdated and it includes the exclusions.

Usually your income protection cover would begin to payout once you had been unemployed for between 30 and 90 days. Some providers will then backdate their cover to the first day of you becoming unemployed, but not all do this. Once the policy has started to provide you with a tax-free income, it would continue for between 12 and 24 months. In the majority of cases, this is enough time for the policyholder to be able to find another job.

Income protection has along with the rest of the family of protection policies has received negative press in the recent past. This was brought to light in 2005 when the Citizens Advice made a super complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. While the Office of Fair Trading investigated so did the Financial Services Authority. Firms received fines and recommendations where made for changes that needed to be made when selling cover. Some firms have taken notice and improvements have been made, however some continue to mis-sell policies.

The introduction of comparison tables by the Financial Services Authority in the future hopes to help those buying cover. There are three types of protection to consider income protection cover, mortgage cover and loan protection. The tables will help the consumer make the right choice through a series of questions relating to the needs.