Accident sickness redundancy insurance would provide a replacement income if you suffered incapacity or unemployment. With a loss of income you could struggle to meet your outgoings each month which could include your mortgage, loan or essential outgoings. With cover you could choose from mortgage, loan or income insurance depending on the outgoings you have to make each month and have an income towards meeting your outgoings.

You can take out accident sickness redundancy insurance by choosing the amount of your mortgage or loan repayments or your income you want to protect. This amount does need to be agreed by the provider you are considering as all will limit the amount you can insure. This is then the sum of money that you get back in monthly instalments if you should have to make a claim on your policy. The payments are tax free and begin once you have been unemployed or incapacitated for a certain period of time which could be in the region of 30 to 90 days. You would then have an income for either 12 months or 24 months and the cover would cease if you were to have to claim for this length of time.

When considering the terms of the cover you would have to bear in mind that if you had to wait until the 90th day before claiming you could be in arrears by the time you saw any money. You would also have to pay out more in premiums for the policy if it paid out over 24 months rather than 12 months.

Along with being able to claim an income for unemployment and incapacity you could also check to find out if the policy paid out for carer cover. Carer cover would provide you with an income if a loved one should become incapacitated. You would still have an income and not have the worry of having to find and pay for someone to come into the home.

Your accident sickness redundancy insurance would be there for you if needed so that you could maintain your mortgage, loan or essential repayments. Being able to maintain your mortgage repayments is essential as if not it can lead to repossession of your home if you are unable to repay what you owe within a certain amount of time. Loan repayments are also essential as you could be taken to court. If you have a secured loan then you would be at risk of having your home taken from you if you cannot catch up. With income cover you would have an income to use as you wanted.

Imagine not having to worry about a sudden or unexpected loss of income completely undermining your carefully made personal budget. It’s the budget, of course, that accounts for practically every item of spending from the salary you earn every month from work. Accident sickness redundancy insurance is a way of answering your dream and relieving you of the worries by paying the very modest monthly premium that a simple insurance policy costs.

Like most good ideas, the principle is simplicity itself. If the policy holder faces losing their income by having to take time off work to recover from an accident or illness or if he or she is made redundant, the insurance simply pays a replacement income in its place. In a nutshell, that is all that there is to accident sickness redundancy insurance. The name says it all so succinctly that it is often shortened to its acronym, ASU insurance. At a time when others might be stacking up unpaid debts – finding themselves a hostage to fortune when the debts need finally to be repaid – the individual with ASU insurance continues to pay the bills, whether of the normal, everyday kind or the critical ones, such as the mortgage or rent or repayments on personal loans and other forms of credit.

Just how much of a replacement income accident sickness redundancy insurance delivers depends on the amount of cover that the intended policy holder proposes to buy. Following a recent ruling from the industry regulators, providers of this kind of payment protection insurance are obliged to advertise the price of premiums per £100 covered, so it is a simple calculation working out how much the desired level of cover will cost. The maximum amount is usually related to the policy holder’s normally earned income and a typical limit, therefore, is 50% of that normal gross income, or £1,500 a month, whichever is less. Clearly, this would produce a generous percentage of the income usually earned (when able to work normally) and is generally quite sufficient to tide the policy holder through a period of convalescence or a period of unemployment whilst looking for another job.

The claims procedure makes it easy to rely on accident sickness redundancy insurance as a form of income protection. Most policies require a given “waiting” period to be completed before a claim is submitted. Generally speaking, this can be anything from 30 to 90 days’ absence from work or out of a job. It is frequently referred to as the “qualifying period”. The insured benefits become payable upon completion of this qualifying period, with some policies backdating the effective date of payments to the first day’s absence from work or the first day of redundancy. Other policies, however, might treat the qualifying period as a form of policy “excess” during which the policy holder bears any financial loss him or herself.

Fairly clearly, if the insurance was completely open-ended and paid out more or less indefinitely, the premiums would need to be very high indeed (to cover the potential liability taken on by the insurer). Instead, therefore, policies are usually written with a typical maximum of 12 months during which the insured benefits are paid. By limiting the potential liability in this way, the insurer is able to keep the price of premiums at an affordable rate, whilst the policy holder remains fully protected with a replacement income long enough to recover from injuries sustained in an accident, or be restored to health after an illness, or, of course, to find alternative employment following redundancy.

Whenever buying an insurance policy, it is always important to check the criteria of eligibility for the cover being sold. There can be nothing more disappointing than to buy something which you thought gave a certain range of protection, only to find, when it comes to the crunch and a claim needs to be made, that you did not meet the eligibility criteria in the first place – and so the cover is invalid. Fortunately, eligibility for accident sickness redundancy insurance is very widely defined and will contain few surprises. Proposed policy holders need to be working (and not on sick leave from work) at the time the cover is arranged and must show that they have been in regular employment for at least the previous six months. They need to be available for work (not having reached retirement age) during the term of the insurance and they will need to be resident in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man.

An area that worries a number of people about more or less any kind of insurance is the issue of exclusions. Accident sickness redundancy insurance has very few. Clearly, there must be no actual or impending notice of redundancy in operation before taking out the insurance and claims under the redundancy provisions are usually subject to an initial “exclusion period” (typically of 180 days). No medical is required in order to arrange the insurance, although pre-existing medical conditions may nevertheless invalidate a claim.

Accident sickness redundancy insurance is being improved and developed all of the time. One of the latest innovations lies in its being able to assure the policy holder of a replacement income if they need to take unpaid leave of absence from their normal job in order to look after a close member of the family. Such exciting new benefits are available with some policies and are added to the “normal” risks of accident, illness or unemployment. Thus, the policy holder is covered in exactly the same way if he or she needs to take time off work to give full-time care to an immediate family member.

This latest innovation helps to underscore just how flexible accident sickness redundancy insurance can be. Just as the name suggests, it covers the risks of losing an income because of incapacity or unemployment. What some consumers might not realise, however, is that it is perfectly possible to buy cover that is limited to either incapacity or unemployment on a standalone basis. If incapacity poses no problem – because of an employer’s in-house sick-pay scheme, for example – then redundancy cover can still provide the replacement income needed if the policy holder becomes unemployed. Conversely, if redundancy is adequately covered by a package already negotiated between the employer and staff, then accident sickness insurance alone might be the order of the day.

Accident sickness redundancy insurance can provide you with peace of mind in the event that you should suffer from one of the events. It would provide you with an income that would go towards you being able to maintain your outgoings or repayments depending on the policy that you chose to take. Your choices for protection include mortgage, loan or income payment protection.

Whatever the type of protection you choose it can be taken out the same way with an independent payment protection provider and by doing so you could save as much as 40% on mortgage protection and 80% on covering your mortgage repayments. You would also be able to choose how much of your repayments or income you want to take cover for. This amount would have to be agreed by the provider you chose to take out protection with as it is the sum of money you would get back as tax free payments if you should have to claim due to one of the events insured against. There would be a deferment period and this would depend on your chosen provider. Some providers will pay your income from the 30th day that you became unemployed or incapacitated while with others it can be up to as much long as the 90th day before you are able to make a claim. Some will continue providing you with an income for 12 months and others could offer 24 monthly payments. Once the term of the policy has been reached it would then cease regardless of whether you had found work or had recovered and got back to work.

The policy you decided to take out would depend on what payments you have to make each month. If for instance you have a mortgage then this would be one of your biggest commitments. Therefore you could look into taking out mortgage payment protection. The income supplied from your mortgage payment protection would provide a substantial sum of money towards you being able to keep the payments up to date. It could stop mortgage arrears from building up which is needed if you are to remain in your home. Even a couple of months of missed payments could be all that are needed for the lender to take you to court if you cannot make an agreement to repay.

If you want to ensure that you would be able to maintain all essential outgoings then income payment protection would provide a substantial sum towards them. You would not have to juggle around with bills and hope that sometime in the future you would be able to catch up on them. If loan commitments were you biggest worry then loan cover taken as accident sickness redundancy insurance could allow you to continue servicing them.

If you are considering accident sickness redundancy insurance then you should also give some thought to searching around with independent providers. If you choose to take cover with the independent provider you can save up to 40% on covering the mortgage repayments and 80% on loan protection to protect the repayments of your loan. You can also get the most competitive premiums for income payment protection and can tailor any type of policy to suit your lifestyle.

The first choice you have to make is the type of accident sickness redundancy insurance you need of course. The protection covers what the name suggests in the exception of income payment protection which protects your essential repayments. Once you have made this choice you then have to decide on the amount of your repayment or income you want to protect. Your provider would pre-agree to this amount, with all defining a maximum amount you can insure. This amount would then be given back to you as a tax free sum each month for the term offered by the provider after you have waited a specific amount of time.

You would have to check the small print to find this out and also check to find out if the provider will back date the cover to the first day. Some providers will begin to payout on the protection once the 30th day has passed while others might ask you wait for up to the 90th day before claiming. Cover will usually continue for a period of 12 months or 24 months after which time it would cease.

You also have the choice of level of protection as your circumstances might not mean you need to cover unemployment and incapacity together. If this is so you could just choose to take insurance for incapacity alone, or if it would suit your lifestyle better you might want to protect solely against unemployment.

While all types of accident sickness redundancy insurance can be taken out the same way with the independent provider they do of course protect different things. If you solely want an income that would go towards your mortgage repayments then mortgage payment protection might be the most suitable policy. The income chosen by you to protect would go a long way towards ensuring that you did not fall into mortgage arrears. Without an income mortgage arrears can soon mount up and become impossible to pay back. If this happens you are then looking at lender repossession and eviction. With protection behind you this might be avoided. Loan cover would protect your loan repayments which could stop you falling behind in which case you could be taken to court by the lender so they can get back their money. The income supplied from your income protection would allow you to maintain any essential outgoings which would make life a great deal easier.

A mortgage cover UK policy could help you to continue to service your mortgage repayments if you should become redundant or lose your income to incapacity. The income you would receive back from your policy would be supplied once the deferment period has passed and for the term which would depend on your chosen provider.

The amount of money you get back would be the sum that you had chosen to protect which the provider would pre-agree upon. This money would be tax free and would usually begin paying out between the 30th and the 90th days. Providers will usually offer payments that continue for either 12 months or 24 months and after this time it would simply cease. However this can be more than enough time for you to have made a recovery from accident or illness or would allow you the time needed to have found work again.

By taking a mortgage cover UK policy with an independent provider you could also choose the level of protection. While you can insure against the possibility of unemployment and incapacity together you could also tailor the insurance based on your circumstances. Your circumstances might dictate that you only need to take insurance for redundancy alone, or you could just need protection against incapacity alone. The level of insurance would reflect on the amount you pay for cover as does your age and how much you choose to protect would also go towards the cost of the insurance.

Of course the lender will probably try to get you to take out the insurance when you take on the mortgage. However you would not be able to choose the level of protection or the amount of your mortgage repayment to protect. Instead the lender will work out the cost of the cover over the entire term of the mortgage and then add it in with the amount you are borrowing. This means you are paying up front for mortgage cover and if you settle the mortgage earlier than anticipated you would have paid out more than needed and have to try and reclaim the payment protection.

A mortgage cover UK policy could mean the difference between you losing your home if you were to fall behind in arrears. While mortgage lenders will usually allow you to make an agreement with them to catch up on what you owe without an income coming into the home regularly this would be impossible to do. The lender would therefore have no option but to take proceedings against you to repossess. If the judge were to take the lenders side and without an income this would be a strong possibility, you could have to give up your home and move out so the lender can try to sell the property.

Accident sickness redundancy insurance makes your life easier if you find yourself unemployed or unable to work due to incapacity. Both of these events could mean you would have to manage for some considerable time without an income coming into the home. With a policy behind you at least for its term you would have an income coming in and you would know how much that income would be.

You decide how much you want to protect. This would be up to a certain amount of your mortgage repayment, your loan repayment or your monthly income. The amount would be pre-agreed at the time of you taking out your protection and would be limited by the provider. The sum you choose to protect would be the income you received back each if you were to become a victim to one of the events you insured against. While you can choose to protect against accident sickness and unemployment together you could also tailor your policy to your needs. If your circumstances dictate you only need redundancy insurance then you can just take this. If you need just to take protection against incapacity then this could be taken as a standalone policy.

The amount you choose to insure, your age and the level of protection taken would all go towards the cost of the premiums. If you shop around online and compare accident sickness redundancy insurance with standalone providers you would get the most competitive premiums around. With some providers you could save up to as much as 40% when taking out mortgage protection and up to 80% when looking for loan cover. You would also get information on all aspects of the protection of your choice.

If you choose to take out accident sickness redundancy insurance in the form of mortgage cover then you would have a substantial sum of money that would go towards being able to maintain your mortgage repayments. This means you would not have to worry about where to find the bulk of the repayment to stop you falling behind on your mortgage repayments. Loan insurance would give you an income to be used towards meeting the demands of your loan repayments which would also protect your credit rating. This is essential if you intend to apply for credit of any kind in the future. Income payment protection would allow you to continue meeting your essential repayments when they became due. You would not have to struggle to find the money needed to continue servicing your utility bills or your monthly food bill. Cover would also stop you from having to make drastic changes to your lifestyle.

Lots of people find the details of how accident sickness redundancy insurance works confusing, so here’s a quick guide to help you find out if this insurance is right for you.

Firstly, it can also be known as ASU insurance (accident, sickness and unemployment insurance) so don’t get confused if you hear it called by that name.

It is part of the payment protection insurance (PPI) sector that basically provides an income to help tide you over when yours is lost through no fault of your own.

Who can take out a policy?

Basically anyone- with a few conditions:

• You must be of working age – that’s over 18 but less than 65 years old
• You must live and work in the UK
• You must work more than 16 hours a week

What risks are covered?

The clue is in the title:

• Accident – any injury whether it occurs at work or not that prevents you from doing your job
• Sickness – an illness that stops you working
• Redundancy – this means involuntary redundancy

What’s not covered?

Accident sickness redundancy insurance has exclusions and conditions that may vary from provider to provider.
The terms may be different for contract workers or the self-employed.

Some conditions are not covered by the sickness part of the policy, like pregnancy, stress and backache.

If you take voluntary redundancy, are sacked or leave your job, the redundancy cover may not protect you.

You must disclose any medical conditions you have before making an application and if you know you are likely to be made redundant.

If you don’t tell the insurer and this information affects a claim, the insurer may not payout.

How much money can you claim?

Some policies pay a percentage of your monthly gross pay – that’s what you are paid before deducting tax and national insurance. Generally, this is half of your gross pay.

Others have no percentage but a top limit of around £1,500.

The object is not to make you better off than when you were working but to replace the income you lose.

How much does cover cost?

Protection can cost for as little as a few pounds a month for cover if you go to a standalone provider.

How does the cover protect my earnings?

Accident sickness redundancy insurance gives a cushion to meet the gap between your regular expenses, like mortgage, rent, council tax, travel and food, and what you receive in state benefits or sick pay while you are not working.

The truth is you’ll never know when you might be made redundant, fall ill or suffer a terrible accident. The effects of these events could be very detrimental to your income, finances and your lifestyle. If on the other hand you protect your salary with an accident sickness redundancy insurance policy, you could come through the difficult time with relative ease and minimum stress.

This protection policy is designed to ease the financial burden by paying out a monthly income which is free from tax in the event of accident, sickness or involuntary redundancy.

Main Benefits and Features
The monthly income will last for a period of 12 or 24 months subject to the terms of the provider but if you return to work in the maximum period, the payments will cease.

These policies can be used to pay off loans and mortgages if they are directly linked to such debts, but if the accident sickness redundancy insurance is a stand alone policy you can use it for pretty much any purpose. The main advantage is that you don’t have to face missed mortgage payments or a bad credit profile because you are off work or in your sick bed.

To be able to apply for a policy providers normally stipulate minimum employment times, these will vary so be sure to know what the period is for your provider.

Once you have the policy in place there are deferment periods as stated by the provider which you must wait before you can make a claim. Generally the period is between 30 – 90 days.

When it comes to the premium you pay for your policy, you should know that independent protection providers offer the best deals. Your mortgage or loan provider may offer you a policy but feel free to look elsewhere as you will save on premiums.

Take British Insurance for example. They are an independent protection provider that can offer up to 80% savings on premiums for certain protection products and they still provide the same great benefits as anyone else in the market.

In the past, many consumers complained about purchasing protection policies they could not claim on. This occurred because providers were not taking the time to explain the terms and conditions of the policies.

You can avoid being a victim of mis-selling by reading your terms and conditions of the accident sickness redundancy insurance carefully and matching your circumstances against what the provider covers.

Summary
Accident sickness redundancy insurance could be the only thing that keeps you from facing bankruptcy if you were to suddenly lose all or part of your income. The income it provides will help you through what could be one of the most difficult and stressful experiences you could face.

Accident sickness redundancy insurance would ease unemployment or incapacity. You could choose to take out cover to protect your mortgage repayments with mortgage payment cover. Choose to protect your loan repayments with loan payment protection or you general outgoings with income payment protection insurance. You could have the protection added in alongside the mortgage or loan at the time of taking it out. However this would be one of the dearest ways of covering your repayments. If you were to take the time to compare the cost of insurance with independent providers you can get far cheaper quotes for cover.

Once you have chosen the type of accident sickness redundancy insurance that would be better for your needs you can then decide how much you want to protect. All providers will state a maximum amount you are able to cover, so check the small print. The amount chosen and agreed with by the provider would be the sum of money that is paid back to you each month for the term of the policy as a tax free payment.

How long you have to be unemployed or incapacitated before putting in a claim will depend on the provider in question. For example if you chose to take cover with ethical specialists in payment protection British Insurance you can claim from day 30 and the policy is dated back to the first day of you becoming unemployed or from becoming incapacitated. With British Insurance you then have a full 12 months in which to search for work or to have made a recovery and got back to your job before the policy ceases. By choosing British Insurance for your payment protection you can also make savings of 40% when protecting the repayments of your mortgage or 80% when taking out loan cover.

If you shop around and compare with other payment protection providers then check to see when they would begin to payout. With some providers it can be up to as long as the 90th day of unemployment or incapacity. You also need to find out how long the protection would payout as there are some that offer cover which would payout for 24 months.

Mortgage cover taken as accident sickness redundancy insurance would ensure you had an income towards meeting your mortgage repayments each month. This could help to stop repossession of your property. Loan payment protection would allow you money towards being able to continue servicing the repayments of your loans. Income payment protection allows an income that could be used towards maintaining any essential outgoings each month.

The consensus amongst most commentators is that unemployment in the UK will pass 3 million before the end of 2010. In the ensuing two years, therefore, many more jobs will be at risk as the current recession continues to deepen. Since those lucky enough to hold onto their jobs will also continue to run the normal risks of time off work through accident or illness, there is as great a need as ever for accident sickness redundancy insurance.

Government resignation to the soaring unemployment figures has been illustrated by the announcement – reported by the daily Telegraph newspaper on the 25th of November 2008 – of the need for the appointment of an additional 6,000 Job Centre staff in response to the rising tide of jobless. In November’s pre-Budget reports, government Ministers conceded that the numbers claiming unemployment benefits would rise by at least a further half a million by the end of 2010. Adding this number to the existing total and allowing for the fact that only about half the number of unemployed actually claim benefits, confirmation seems to have been given by the government itself that unemployment will indeed rise to 3 million.

Indeed, the upward trend in unemployment, which clearly increases the risk of any individual job ending in redundancy, has been enough to force many insurers to withdraw unemployment insurance products from the market – according to a Telegraph article dated the 17th of November 2008. Those that have done so have nevertheless retained the more common and more popular combined policies which cover all three risks of accident, sickness and unemployment.

One of the reasons for the continued popularity of accident sickness redundancy insurance is not only the continued – and increasing – need for it, but also its flexibility in being suited to a number of different personal circumstances. The level of cover, for example, is chosen by the policy holder from the outset and benefits in the event of any claim can be used to guarantee various financial commitments. The insurance can be used to ensure that mortgage repayments continue to be made, for example, and in such a case the maximum amount of cover generally allowed by most policies is 75% of the policy holder’s normally earned income, or £3,000, whichever is the lower figure. If used to cover repayments on a personal loan or other credit, or to provide a general income, the limit is typically 50% of the policy holder’s earned income or £1,000 a month.

“Accident sickness redundancy insurance provides a very effective and modestly-priced safeguard against the three most common risks to the financial welfare of the normal working man or woman” says Simon Burgess of leading independent insurance providers, British Insurance, “given the fairly grim economic prospects over at least the next couple of years, the continuing need for this type of insurance is pretty clear”.