There is no doubt about it; income payment protection can be a very valuable product. If you take out protection and then find yourself not being able to earn a living through accident, illness or unemployment you could be left struggling financially. With the backup of a protection plan to fall back on you would not have to worry about a loss of income as you would receive a payment that was tax-free after a period of unemployment or incapacity.



You do have to check the terms of polices when shopping around online for the cheapest quotes. The cost of a policy of course matters a great deal and independent providers will offer the cheapest premiums. However you also need to compare such things as when your policy would begin to provide benefit and for how long it would provide. You could take on a policy that would supply you with benefit after as little as 30 days. However some providers stipulate that you have to be unemployed or incapacitated for 90 days. Also look to see if the cover would be backdated to the first date of you stopping work, or of being made redundant. All policies will only provide benefit for a certain length of time before expiring. Some providers give 24 monthly repayments, others will give 12 months of cover, so again, make sure that you have to read the terms and conditions in the small print.

Income payment protection often gets confused with income protection insurance. However they are different forms of protection. Income protection insurance pays out for a longer period of time which can be anything up to the age of retirement. However it does not cover against being made redundant, it only protects the policy holder against illness or accident. Income payment protection on the other hand would only payout for the specified period of time once you claimed on the cover and it would also protect against you being made redundant.

There can be exclusions in the cover and these should be checked against your circumstances when considering protecting your monthly income. Some providers will add-in more exclusions than others so you should always compare these before signing up for cover.

An income payment protection policy can make a huge difference if you should find yourself out or work or if you should become unemployed. Without cover you would have to struggle to find the much needed money each month to pay not only your essential outgoings such as your mortgage you also have to be able to carry on feeding your family, keeping up with electricity and heating bills.

If you do not maintain the repayments of your mortgage then you are facing having your home repossessed. If you get behind on loan or credit card repayments then your credit rating will plummet and finding a lender willing to offer you a loan in the future could be very hard. You could end up having to go for a bad credit loan and usually the interest rates are a lot higher for someone with a bad credit rating.