Income Protection vs Payment Protection Insurance

What’s the Difference Between Income Protection and Payment Protection?

There are multiple differences between Income Protection and Payment Protection, notably surrounding:

• The length of cover
• How comprehensive the cover is
• How much you can insure yourself for
• Coverage of medical conditions and exclusions
• Type of premiums
• Cost of cover
• Transparency with claims data.

Income Protection Overview

Protect up to 70% of your income if you can’t work due to accident or sickness (and potentially redundancy depending on your policy)

• Long Term Protection
  Can pay out a claim right up until you retire if you are too ill or injured to return to work.
• Own Occupation Cover
  Pays a claim if you are unable to do your current job due to illness or injury.
• Optional Guaranteed Premiums
  Fix the cost of the cover for the entire length of the policy.
• Full Medical Underwriting
  Completion of full health questionnaire at application stage so you know exactly what you are covered for from the outset.

Payment Protection Overview

Payment Protection cover tends to be aligned with an outstanding loan or mortgage, so the amount you can insure yourself for is linked to the size of your monthly loan repayments

• Short Term Protection
  Pays a claim for a maximum of 12 or 24 months regardless of whether or not you are able to return to work.
• Suited Occupation Cover
  Pays a claim if you are unable to do your current job or any other role you may be able to undertake given your skills and experience.
• Reviewable Premiums
  The cost of the cover is reviewed annually tending to rise year on year.
• Moratorium Underwriting
  You agree that any conditions suffered in the previous two years will not be covered, should you suffer an illness or injury your medical history is then considered when making a claim.

Do I Need Payment Protection or Accident & Sickness Insurance?

What’s the Best Insurance: Income Protection or Payment Protection?

It’s impossible to tell whether you need Payment Protection Insurance or Income Protection without examining your circumstances. For that you’d need to pick up the phone and have a chat – feel free to pop us a call any time.

However, broadly speaking, if affordability is not an issue then every working adult should consider traditional long-term income protection which would pay a claim should they be unable to do their own occupation due to any illness or injury.

The Cost of Income Protection vs the Payment Protection

Income Protection is a broader, more comprehensive cover than PPI in many cases. Income Protection covers you for longer and for a larger amounts, as well as taking your medical history into account.

With Income Protection, there’s also the option for guaranteed premiums, where you lock in the cost of cover over the life of the policy from the start.

Payment Protection Insurance offers shorter-term cover where the maximum payout will often be limited to either 12 or 24 months depending on the terms of your policy.

No medical history will be taken with PPI when you set-up your cover which means a pre-existing medical condition that stops you being able to make your loan repayments may be excluded without you being clear on this until you come to make a claim. Most Payment Protection policies exclude any illness which you have suffered in the 2 years prior to taking out cover.

When you consider the greater depth and breadth of what Income Protection offers, it’s perhaps not surprising that it can work out slightly more expensive than PPI.

However, factoring in that the cover can be significantly more comprehensive and you can lock in the cost with guaranteed premiums it’s worth spending a little extra to ensure your income is suitably protected.

Can You Get Unemployment Insurance with Income Protection or PPI?

Many people looking for unemployment cover find that it can be included in a PPI policy and feel it’s just easier to take out one policy covering all three risks. However, with some Income Protection policies it is possible to add redundancy cover as a bolt on to the accident and sickness cover.

We often couple 12 months of unemployment cover with a traditional long term income protection policy so our clients have the best of both worlds. Our advisers can discuss your needs with you and find you the right type of cover for your circumstances to make sure you’ve got the right insurance in place.

Self-employed?
Income Protection for the self-employed is no issue when looking to cover accident and sickness, but always be careful if deciding to add unemployment cover to your policy. That’s because when you work for yourself you’re technically you’re own boss.

As such, it’s very hard to prove that your out of work through no fault of your own and had no knowledge about the chain of events leading to the claim.

Get Expert Income Protection Advice

While Income Protection provides more comprehensive cover, there’s no guarantee that it’s right for everyone. If you’re not looking to protect your income and are only worried about loan repayments, then a full Income Protection plan may not make sense.

As much as we would like to see every working adult have their income protected right up to retirement some cover is still better than no cover at all.

Why Speak to Us…

We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to let us help.

• There is no fee for our service
• We are independent and impartial
  Drewberry isn’t tied to any insurance company, so we can provide completely impartial advice to make sure you get the most appropriate policy based solely on your needs.
• We’ve got bargaining power on our side
  This allows us to negotiate better premiums for you than you going direct yourself.
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
  You will speak to a named expert with a direct telephone and email. No more automated machines and no more being sent from pillar to post – you’ll have someone to speak to who knows you.
• Benefit from our 5-star service
  We pride ourselves on providing a 5-star service, as can be seen from our 3900 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5.
• Gain the protection of regulated advice
  You are protected. Where we provide a regulated advice service we are responsible for the policy we set-up for you. Doing it yourself or going direct to an insurer won’t provide this protection, so you won’t benefit from these securities.
• Claims support when you need it the most
  You have support should you need to make a claim. The most important thing when it comes to insurance is that claims are paid and quickly. We are here to support you during the claims process and make sure it’s as smooth and stress free as possible.

If you’re deciding whether to take out Payment Protection Insurance or Income Protection then please feel free to call us on 01273646484.

Our advisers are on hand to talk you through your options and make sure you find the best policy for your circumstances that covers all of your requirements.

Tom Conner
Director at Drewberry