It’s difficult to weigh up which poses the biggest risk – are you more likely to be off work through the incapacity brought about by an accident or illness, or do you run the bigger risk of losing your job entirely? All-in-one accident sickness redundancy insurance takes the guesswork out of such decisions and provides reliable and effective protection against all three.
However well you take care of yourself, the actual likelihood of your being incapacitated through an accident or sickness is more or less down to the roll of the dice. Although the probability of it happening to you is difficult to pin down, therefore, insurers Norwich Union nevertheless did some research suggesting that at any one time nearly 2 million of the country’s total work force are unable to
work for more than six months due to accidental injury or ill-health.
The same research revealed that the average worker is nearly twenty times more likely to be incapacitated from working for more than six months than they are to suffer a premature death before retirement age. This highlights an apparent anomaly in the fact that although a large number of people think about and actually arrange life insurance, far fewer consider accident and sickness insurance.
When it comes to the chances of being made redundant, it is similarly difficult to be precise, of course, but the briefest glance at the newspapers will tell you that the odds are increasing daily. It seems widely accepted that the number of unemployed will top 2 million before 2008 is out and that 3 million is a distinct possibility before the end of 2010.
Given a rough shape of the odds, therefore, it is clear to see why accident sickness redundancy insurance is a desirable option. In the event of any such misfortune striking the policy holder, the insurance will pay out each month either a general income replacement or a specific sum to take care of mortgage or other loan replacements. The level of the monthly benefit payments in the event of a claim is determined by the policy holder at the outset and, for income replacement or to cover a loan, can be as much as 50% of his or her normally earned income or £1,000, whichever is less (although the precise limits will vary from insurer to insurer). If the insurance is to be used as a form of mortgage protection, these limits are typically increased up to the lesser sum of 75% of normal earnings or £3,000 (with the exact maximum again varying from policy to policy).
A company specialising in the provision of affordable accident sickness redundancy insurance is British Insurance, whose managing director, Simon Burgess, says: “no one knows, of course, if or when incapacity or unemployment might strike. They can happen to anyone, at any time, and with the economy in the shape it is in at the moment, the most prudent step is to arrange low-cost, but effective and reliable insurance cover against each of these risks”.
For many years I have been a staunch campaigner against the major names in finance who, I believe, rip-off their customers by selling over priced, often unsuitable payment protection insurance (PPI) cover.