Protect you and your family’s future

With the busy day to day activities of life, it is often difficult to find the time to consider how important your income is to your lifestyle and what impact losing this income could have on your family’s future, and your ability to live the future you want. The average household would be at the breadline in only 29 days* in the event of a loss of earnings due to illness or injury, this leaves you relying on 3 areas to maintain the household and your lifestyle:

– Family Help – relying on family to help pay your bills and give financial support during a time of illness is often cited as a reason not to protect your family, in reality how long would this help be available and would it be sufficient to cover all your costs? In most cases the answer is not very long and no it wouldn’t. How long could you financially support a relative should they be the one to ask for help?

– State Help – it is a common misconception that if you are unable to earn a living due to ill health that the government will support you, in reality the amount of help provided in benefits would be very limited and represents only 12%** of the average monthly household expenditure. Would this be enough to maintain your lifestyle?

– Employer Benefits – most employers in the UK do not provide any form of sick pay benefit beyond statutory sick pay, this means that in the event of ill health you would receive only £88.45 per week for up to 28 days (www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay), at which point you would then be required to apply for Employment and Support Allowance to receive a maximum of £109.30 per week (www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance).

Ask yourself if you would be happy to rely on the above options to protect your family and maintain your lifestyle. If not then we can help, by arranging suitable income protection cover you can have the peace of mind to know that should you be off work due to ill health that you would be able to manage financially. With premiums often a lot cheaper than you may expect, the question is why wouldn’t you protect your biggest asset? Please get in touch today if you want to look at the options…

*Legal and General “Deadline to breadline” report 2014.
** Office National Statistics Report on Living Costs 2014.