Archive for the ‘Unemployment Income Protection Insurance’

There are good reasons, these days, to be worried about redundancy. A good deal of the worry and concern can be lessened considerably, however, by a very basic safety first measure by the name of unemployment income protection insurance.

Three million of the workforce unemployed by the end of the decade is a tally that of course gives cause for concern. This is the total forecast by some analysts looking ahead to the year 2010 and the basis for a report in The Independent newspaper on the 24 October 2008. For many people currently in work, the prospect of redundancy seemed little to worry about – most of their jobs appeared to be reasonably secure. Things changed in the wake of the credit crunch, of course, as the British economy slid into recession and the rate of unemployment rose to its steepest in at least 17 years. Already, it is commonly expected that some two million people will be without a job by this Christmas.

The risk of any particular, individual job being made redundant, of course, is extremely difficult to calculate. Some sectors of the economy will be more vulnerable than others, but it will be difficult to predict exactly where the axe might fall. The simple fact of the matter is that it could be yours.

Those prudently acting on the safety first principle, however, will have forearmed themselves with unemployment income protection insurance, an eminently simple and straight forward measure which guarantees a regular, monthly replacement income in the event of compulsory redundancy.

The level of cover required is chosen at the outset and will be determined by the prospective policy holder’s decision to balance the cost of the monthly premiums against the amount of income that would be required to tide him or her over in the period between a possible redundancy and the first day in a new job. Typically – but depending on the particular insurer chosen – the maximum amount of cover that can be bought in this way will be 50% of the normally earned salary whilst in work or £1,000 a month, whichever is less. Once the cover has commenced the benefits become payable in the event of redundancy and will continue to be paid each month until the policy holder returns to work in a new job, or for up to 12 months. Depending on the particular policy chosen, the option might be given, on payment of an additional premium, to extend this maximum period of payment to 24 months.

Leading specialists in the provision of unemployment income protection insurance are British Insurance, whose managing director, Simon Burgess, asks: “will your job survive the round of redundancies that lies ahead? Who can tell? Many, though, will be more than a little worried. The modest cost of premiums for reliable and effective redundancy insurance, however, is a small price to pay for putting the safety of your finances first”.

If you are concerned about the effects of job loss especially when the economy is volatile, you might want to consider taking out unemployment income protection insurance. This policy is designed to pay you a monthly income in the event of involuntary unemployment such as accident, sickness or redundancy.

Main Features and Benefits

Firstly the income you receive will be tax free which is quite good since the benefit will not cover your entire salaried income. Because there are maximum benefit levels associated with these polices, the provider will pay a percentage of your gross salaried income.

The benefits from unemployment income protection insurance are paid for a period of 12-24 months depending on the policy conditions of the provider you choose.

In addition these policies can be linked to mortgage or loan products and if they are, then the payments for these debts will usually be taken first.

When deciding on your cover, you may be able to choose the number of incidents you want to be insured against.

Policy premiums can be very low, but you have to know where to shop (we will touch on this later)

Most providers have a 30 – 90 day deferment period before a claim can be made so you will need to take out your policy while you are employed and not aware of any impending redundancy.

Just to clarify, the unemployment income protection insurance discussed in this article is not the same as the longer term protection product which pays out in the event of sickness only and benefits usually cease when the policy holder retires.

More On Premiums

As stated earlier, if you know where to purchase your protection policy, you can save on premiums. If you choose the policy provided by your mortgage or loan provider, you are guaranteed to pay more in premiums than if you obtained your policy from a stand alone company.

Simon Burgess of British Insurance says ‘Many high street providers charge customers above average premiums, but at British Insurance we believe in providing quality products at cost effective premiums. We will keep our premiums low as it is the ethical thing to do’

Terms and Conditions
In order to enjoy the benefits of your unemployment income protection insurance policy it is important to ensure that your circumstances match the policy terms and conditions. The easiest way to do this is to read the policy conditions carefully and ask the provider about any points that are unclear.

You want to make sure the provider is aware of your job situations, medical history etc so if in the future you do need to make a claim, you will have a successful outcome.

Unemployment income protection insurance will protect you from loss of your main income. It will help you keep food on your table and a roof over your head. It will also greatly reduce your stress levels because while you are off sick or looking for another job, you will be able to maintain your current lifestyle.

Unemployment income protection insurance can replace a portion of your monthly income if you lose your own after being made redundant. The income you would receive back each month for the duration of the cover would be the amount that you chose to protect against unemployment. The provider would agree with the amount and all providers set a limit on the amount you can go up to.

Often unemployment happens very quickly and no one can say that their job is safe as many have found out in the past. If you were to lose your income suddenly you might struggle to find money to continue living on. You would have to maintain the payments of such as utility bills and keep food on the table for your family. If you turned to any redundancy money you received you could soon put a huge hole in it if you had to rely on using it to subsidise all of your repayments for several months. With an unemployment income protection insurance policy to turn to you could turn your attention to finding work while also not having to touch savings.

Where you choose to take out your protection insurance from would depend on the cost of a policy. British Insurance is one of the leading payment protection specialists who offer some of the biggest savings. They base premiums on age, the length of protection and amount you choose to protect. British Insurance also adds in just a few exclusions when compared with other providers and you can find information relating to the exclusions which you can check against your circumstances on their website.

As a standalone provider British Insurance also offer some of the biggest savings on the protection and they offer great terms. You can choose to take on cover that would provide you with an income for either 12 or 24 months. British Insurance would also payout on their protection from the 30th day of you losing your income to redundancy and they date the benefit back to the first day of your unemployment. If you should choose to compare protection with other providers you would need to read the terms that come with the protection as some providers will ask you wait for up to the 90th day before claiming.

Unemployment income protection insurance can be a better form of back up plan than risking being able to make a claim from the State if you are made redundant. To be eligible to claim money from the State you would not have to have savings over a certain amount, so if you have redundancy money you would be expected to use this first. Even if you were eligible to receive an income from the State the money you are entitled to receive often bears no resemblance to the income you are used to relying on each month. At least with a policy to fall back onto you would have the income you insured for the term that you chose to take it out over and this would provide great comfort.

Payment protection insurance of all kinds has come in for quite a drubbing from many quarters of the financial press, so many people could be forgiven for thinking that unemployment income protection insurance is something to steer well clear of.

The steadily lengthening roll-call of institutions penalised by industry regulators for mis-selling payment protection insurance is certainly enough to ring alarm bells for most consumers. The size of some of those penalties goes some small way to suggesting just how serious the problem has been. At the beginning of October 2008, for example, the heftiest fine yet – some £7 million – was imposed on leading high street bank Alliance and Leicester for what the Financial Services Authority described as the “most serious mis-selling” of payment protection insurance.

Although such criticisms have been circulating for several years now, the bank continued to give its customers the impression that payment protection insurance was somehow “obligatory” and unfairly pressurised customers into buying it. This was the same unfair practice that landed HFC Bank (a subsidiary of HSBC) a £1.09 million fine in January of 2008.

Despite 18 months now of formal investigation by the Competition Commission and the latter’s constant warnings to the banking industry, the Consumer Association continues to receive more than 1,000 complaints every month about payment protection insurance policies being brazenly mis-sold.

All in all, it’s enough to make anyone think twice about buying unemployment income protection insurance. But it is certainly is worth giving it a second thought. Whilst the big banks and building societies have been selling such insurance with almost complete disregard for their customers needs, some of the independent insurance providers have been acting with all due integrity in ensuring that the cover supplied meets the consumers’ needs exactly.

One such provider is British Insurance, whose managing director, Simon Burgess, comments: “despite the best efforts of the big banks and building societies to give income payment protection insurance a bad name, we’ve been steadily working away to ensure that this extremely useful product is put properly into the hands of those who most need it – and at a time when almost no job can be relied on as being completely safe from the prospect of redundancy, we’re more than ever concerned to offer unemployment income protection insurance to a wide cross-section of buyers”.

Unemployment income protection insurance works in a very simple way: if the policy holder becomes unemployed through no fault of his or her own, the insurance pays out a monthly benefit that can be used as a replacement income until a return to work – or for up to a maximum of 12 months (24 months if the policy holder chooses to pay somewhat more expensive premiums). The level of cover is chosen from the outset and there is typically a maximum of ceiling of 50% of the policy holder’s normal income from his or her existing employment or £1,000, whichever is the lower figure (although the actual limits will vary from policy to policy).

When you go about your everyday life, it may not occur to you that you maybe made redundant, have an accident or become too ill to work. While these thoughts may be the furthest things from your mind they can happen. If you were to lose your job, would you be prepared for that? If you want to be prepared just in case, then unemployment income protection insurance is for you.

Also known as income protection, this product will pay you an income if you were to lose your job due to redundancy, sickness or accident You will be paid an income for up to 12-24 months depending on the lender you choose.

Besides providing an income, this type of insurance will provide you with peace of mind. If you are the sole provider in your family or perhaps you don’t have anything saved for a rainy day, you can rest assured if the worse were to happen you won’t face financial ruin.

Protecting your income is especially important if you are ill. The last thing you’ll need is creditors calling or threats of repossession. When your income is protected you can rest easily and recover quickly

More About Unemployment Income Protection Insurance

• The income you receive will be 100% free of tax
• The income paid will be a percentage of your normal salary. It will not replace it completely.
• You should know that there are maximum benefit levels so when choosing your product make sure the benefit is sufficient to meet your monthly commitments
• Policy premiums can be very low if you know where to shop (more on this later)
• You may be able to chose which incidents you want to be covered for e.g. sickness and redundancy only etc.
• There is usually a deferment period before a claim can be made

Criteria For Choosing Your Product

This really depends on you and what your needs are. You could choose a product based on the benefits, deferment period, exclusions etc.

After the benefits, the cost of premiums is normally the deciding factor. The good news is if you look beyond the high street providers to independent companies, you can save loads in premiums.

Once such standalone company is British Insurance - a specialist protection product provider. Managing Director Simon Burgess states ‘Because we take advantage of technology, we can provide superior products at lower premiums than our competitors’

Summary

With such uncertainty in life, it makes sense to consider taking out unemployment income protection insurance. There are great benefits and the premiums can be very low if you know where to look.

Unemployment income protection insurance could make your life a lot easier if you found yourself a victim of redundancy. You could take out a policy by insuring a portion of your monthly income, pre-agreed with the provider, against the possibility of redundancy and receive this sum as a payment each month which would come tax-free if you were made involuntarily unemployed.

The money that you received back would then be used towards any bills that came into the home each month. For example you could use it to pay your supermarket food bill and to keep the home warm by paying fuel bills. Protection could make life easier as the alternative could be struggling to find the money needed or having to juggle around bills or make drastic lifestyle changes in order to maintain your essential outgoings.

The cost of unemployment income protection insurance would vary on the provider. Should you chose to take out the cover with independent payment protection provider British Insurance you would get a cheap quote and be sold protection by qualified trained staff. You would be buying cover that comes with few exclusions when compared with other providers. These would have to be checked against your lifestyle to ensure suitability. However British Insurance supplies the information needed to check on their website.

Ethical British Insurance also offers protection with no excess because they back date your benefit to the first day of you becoming unemployed. You would receive benefit from the 30th day of redundancy and then receive a payment every month for a maximum of 12 months. However after this time the policy would simply expire. You could find by shopping around that you could get cover that would continue paying out for a maximum of 24 months; however you need read the terms offered by the provider to determine this. Also use the terms and conditions to check when your cover could be claimed upon as some specialists could ask you wait until day 90.

Unemployment income protection insurance is a better form of safety net to rely on than savings or being able to claim benefit from the State. You might have to rely on savings for many months as jobs can be hard to find and savings could run dry well before this time. Redundancy money could be used but again relying on this for many months would soon make a big hole in the money. You would have to be eligible to claim State benefits and the money you might be entitled to receive each month could be a let down as often it falls far short of the income you are used to fetching home. At least with unemployment income insurance behind you, you would have the income you insured against for the term of the policy to rely on.

Unemployment income protection insurance would cover your essential repayments if you should lose your own income due to being made redundant. You would choose the amount you wanted to protect of your income, up to the limit set by the provider which would be pre-agreed when taking on the cover, and this would be the sum that you would be given back if you had to make a claim. The income would be tax-free and would go a long way towards you being able to keep on top of all your essential payments.

Without something to fall back on you could have to struggle to meet the demands of your outgoings each month. If you had to make cutbacks these could have an affect on the whole of the family but if you pay a small premium each month with an independent provider they can be avoided.

If you choose to take out the protection with leading independent payment protection specialist British Insurance then you would make the biggest savings on the protection. They would offer cover that would payout once you had been unemployed for at least a period of 30 days. British Insurance would also pay back on the cover to the first day of you becoming unemployed. Once you had made a claim on the protection you would then have 12 months to find work before the policy would cease paying out.

If you shop with other providers you would have to check the terms and conditions of the cover as the starting and end dates could differ. Some could continue paying out for up to as much as the 24th month. However there might also be an extended period of deferment which could be as long as the 90th day before you could put in a claim. You also have to check the terms and conditions to see what exclusions there are in the protection. These have to be checked against your circumstances in order to ensure that you would be eligible to claim. Once you have checked these you would then have a back up plan on which to fall back on.

Unemployment income protection insurance would be a far more reliable form of protection than risking falling back onto savings to get you through your unemployment. It can take a long time to find work with a salary that matched the one you lost and due to this savings could deplete before you found work. If you risked being able to claim an income from the State you could also be let down as often any income you are eligible to receive falls far short of the income you are used to bringing into the home with your salary.

You can protect all of the essential outgoings you have to make each month by taking out  unemployment income protection insurance. As no one’s job can be considered safe anymore you have to give some thought to how you would be able to maintain all the payments that come into the home each month if you lost your own income. The cover would allow you to insure up to a certain amount of your income which would be pre-agreed when you take on the policy. This sum of money would be paid to you as a tax-free sum if you had to make a claim on the cover.

By taking out  unemployment income protection insurance you would have great peace of mind that you would be able to carry on living your current lifestyle without making great changes. If you did not have something to fall back on then you might have to make serious cutbacks on everything in order to be able to keep on top of your outgoings which were considered to be essential. You might have to juggle payments around with the hope that you would be able to catch up on them before you received letters and life could become very hard for not only you but also your while family.

You can take out an income protection insurance policy against unemployment by getting a quote from an independent payment provider. One of the most ethical of these is British Insurance. They offer a quality product that is backed with many years of experience in selling payment protection products. They also provide all the information that you would need for you to ensure that cover would be suitable. There are exclusions which you would need to check against your circumstances and once you had checked them you could then apply for the protection with British Insurance there and then.

Unemployment income protection insurance from ethical British Insurance would begin to supply you with protection once you had been unemployed for a period of no less than 30 days. They would date back the cover to the first day that you became redundant and would then continue to payout for up to a maximum of 12 months. When looking into taking out unemployment cover you have to read the terms that come with the policy as providers state different starting and end dates for the cover. Some providers might state a deferment period of up to 90 days before they would allow you to make your claim. You also need to see how long the policy would last before the benefits stop as some might offer to pay for up to 24 months.

Payment protection is offered to you whenever you take out a loan, credit card or mortgage. While the policies are a great idea to fall back on if you are made redundant you are usually better off choosing to look around independently for the protection. Unemployment income protection insurance taken with ethical standalone provider British Insurance comes backed up with their experience in selling protection and nothing but protection.

You can take out income protection insurance against unemployment by insuring up to a certain amount of your own income which would be pre-agreed when you take out the cover. This sum of money would then be paid back tax-free and would go towards you being able to keep up with all of your outgoings. You could use the money to pay whatever bills you wished to pay that came into the home each month and which were needed to keep the home up and running smoothly.

Unemployment income protection insurance would payout with British Insurance from the 30th day of you being unemployed. British Insurance would back pay on the protection to the first day that you became unemployed and would then continue to provide you with an income for up to 12 months. While this can be enough time to find work and get back to earning a living you could find that some providers might extend this to 24 months. However, some providers might also extend the deferment period to as much as the 90th day of unemployment so you would have to check the terms of the policy. You would also have to check that you would be eligible to make a claim. There are exclusions that would need checking against your circumstances, British Insurance would supply this information on their website so that you would be able to check for eligibility before you take out the cover.

With unemployment income protection insurance behind you there would be no worry of where you would get the money needed to be able to continue meeting your payments each month. You would not have to worry about making changes to your lifestyle in order to be able to put food on the table for your family. You would also not have to worry about pushing bills to one side with the hope that you would be able to catch up on them in the future. You would be able to meet them without worry and this would allow you time to search for work and attend interviews. A policy is more reliable than turning to savings in the bank as these might not last for the duration of your unemployment. It is also a better back up plan than relying on being able to claim money from the State. You would have to be eligible to claim State benefits and even then you might not get the income to cover all of your outgoings each month and still fall short.

If you lost your monthly income as the result of becoming unemployed due to redundancy, life could become very hard when it came to keeping up with repayments that kept that home running. Unemployment income protection insurance could help to supply you with the money needed to do just that.

Income protection is taken out to insure a pre-agreed sum of your own income each month. This is the sum that you would get back every month, tax free, towards helping to pay the bills. This sum of money could be used towards any bills that come into the home and could include such as grocery bills, utility bills or even go towards loans. Without something to fall back on you would be left struggling and could have to make drastic cut backs to your lifestyle.

The cost of unemployment income protection insurance  will vary depending on the provider you choose to take the policy out with. Independent payment protection specialists will offer the cheapest premiums and British Insurance will provide you with one of the cheapest quotes for protection. The quote from ethical provider British Insurance will be based on the amount of your income you want to protect and your age when you apply for the cover. As the policy is age based this means that the younger generation who often have huge outgoings each month can now afford to protect those outgoings.

Cover with British Insurance would begin to pay out once you had been unemployed for at least 30 days and they would backdate to day one of you being made unemployed.  Once the policy has begun to provide you with your income the payments would then continue to payout for 12 months if you needed to make a claim and then it would cease. There are some providers that might ask you wait until the 90th day before you could put in a claim and some might offer to provide you with an income for as long as the 24 month.

You would have to check the unemployment income protection insurance cover for any exclusions. If you take a policy from ethical payment protection provider British Insurance there will be just the most frequently found exclusions. However other providers might add in many more. These need to be checked against your circumstances in order to be sure that you would be eligible to make a claim. Once you have checked them and you know that your circumstances would not stop you from being eligible then you would have a back up plan on which you could fall back on if redundancy did occur.