Income Protection
Income protection insurance is a type of policy that would make regular payments to you in the vent you have a loss of income due to a medium to long-term illness, injury or disability.
Income protection would be worth considering if you are self employed with no other source of income, have little paid sick leave from your employer or you do not have sufficient benefits to replace any potentially lost income.
Before taking out an income protection policy you should check if there are any other benefits you might be entitled to such as social welfare payments, sick pay or ill health retirement pension plans.
Costs will usually depend on your job, the level of cover you want, your age, health, medical history and lifestyle choices, ie smoking and drinking.
The amount of income insured can be decided upon when taking out the policy. This is usually 66% or 75% of your earnings before you became ill or disabled, less any other income you get while out of work, such as sick pay, and single person’s social welfare illness benefit – if you are entitled to it. Payment usually lasts until you can return to work or reach the age threshold of the benefit cessation age described in the policy.
The nature of income protection as more of a tailored policy makes the help and advice of an experienced broker even more useful. At Lloyds we have access to all income protection providers in ireland and are able to help you find the right level of cover and best provider for your needs.