Income Protection Insurance Can Help if You Lose Your Own Income

Income protection insurance should not be confused with a product of a very similar name, income payment protection insurance. While the two are similar names and they would provide an income if you lost your own, the terms and conditions under which they do are very different.

Income payment protection insurance would provide an income if you were to fall ill or suffer an accident which meant you were unable to work. It would also payout if you become unemployed this could be by redundancy. You would have to stand to so many days of unemployment or of being incapacitated and then the policy would begin to provide you with the income you insured against. Usually providers ask you wait around 30 to 90 days. The policy would payout for between 12 and 24 months and then it would cease whether you had gone back to work or found another job. The premium you would pay would be based on your age and the amount you wished to protect each month. Your lifestyle is not taken into account with this type of protection.

Income protection insurance would supply you with an income but you would have to wait considerably longer for the payout to commence. You are able to protect against incapacity due to suffering an accident or an illness but unemployment by such as redundancy is not covered. While you would have to wait a certain period before putting in a claim once you had started to receive the benefit it would continue to payout for as long as you needed it. If necessary it would continue providing you with an income until you reached the age of retirement. There are many factors which go towards determining the cost of the insurance. Age will be taken into account and such as your gender; occupation and health will also determine how much you have to pay for the premium. Therefore if you are in the older age group, smoke and have an occupation deemed to be risky you will pay a higher premium.

Protecting your income is essential, when you sit down and work out what you have going out each month it will add up to a large amount. If you have the commitment of a mortgage each month then you have to ensure that you have the income so that you can continue meeting the repayments. If you fall into arrears with the payments then you will risk everything and you lender could choose to repossess. Even one missed repayment means you have broken the contract you signed with the lender for your mortgage. If you cannot show how you would you could catch up on the arrears while paying your mortgage then your lender will take the first steps of repossession.

Of course you will probably have other commitments that you need to keep on top of too; loan or credit card repayments for instance need to be maintained. If they are not then the lender could take you to court and at the very least your credit file will be affected. If you take out income protection insurance you are able to relax and concentrate on making a recovery and getting back to earning.