During these times of economic turbulence and insecurity we all have a immense need for sickness, accident, unemployment & redundancy protection. Most of us have a mortgage, loans, credit cards, utility bills and everyday living expenses that would need to be paid if we were to lose our jobs through a redundancy, become ill or suffered an injury and be unable to work for a while.



With household budgets already stretched you should think seriously about protecting yourself and your family. If you or your partner lost your job through a redundancy and you ended up unemployed for a long period of time. How would you pay your mortgage and other bills? It is at times like this that debts start to rise as you struggle to meet your commitments. Then you start borrowing on your credit cards or taking out high cost loans and slowly your debts become bigger and you start to lose control and your debts spiral out of control.

It is impossible to predict whether you will find yourself unemployed or off work due to a long term illness or an accident. There are different types of protection insurance policies available today. You should consider taking out a protection policy to safeguard yourself from a financial disaster should anything happen to you or any of your loved ones. The Yorkshire Building Society recently estimated that the average Briton's savings would only last 52 days if they were unable to work and that 36% of Britons would only last 11 days. Scary isn't it.

The old adage of having a ‘rainy day fund' looks like it is a thing of the past, with one in six people or 16% of us having to rely on credit to fund basic household breakdowns. 45% of Britons say that they could not afford more than £500 if an emergency arose and 20% of Britons said they could afford no more than £100, according to research carried out by the Alliance & Leicester. Based on these statistics it is important that you protect yourself.

There are two main types of Protection Insurance policies available:-

Accident, Sickness, Unemployment & Redundancy cover Generally known as Mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI). It was designed to provide you with a monthly payment to cover your monthly mortgage payment and associated mortgage costs if you were to lose your earned income, through illness, accident, unemployment or redundancy. The payment period is often limited to a maximum of 24 months for Accident and Illness and 12 months for Unemployment and Redundancy.

Income Protection Insurance (also known as Permanent Health Insurance) This type of Insurance will pay you an income if you are unable to work due to an illness or injury and it usually pays out either until you return to work or you reach retirement age. Income Protection policies will usually pay up to 70% of you annual income. You can add redundancy cover to an Income protection policy. This type of policy may seem costly but it will pay you out for the term of the policy or until you reach retirement age in the event a long term illness, accident or redundancy that may lead to long term unemployment