That said, in the current economic climate, most of us do still need some form of comfort that if we were to lose our job or be ill for a long period, we would still have some form of income to help us maintain our lifestyle.
This is where the new breed of Lifestyle Protection products come in. These products tend to cover you (depending on your employment status) for accident, sickness and unemployment (also known as ASU). They are offered ‘standalone’, which means there is no requirement to buy them and they are normally only offered by companies independent from your lender.
These products cover a wide range of your regular monthly commitments, will generally offer far broader coverage and will allow you to protect anywhere up to £3,000 per month depending on the provider. Cover is normally capped at a certain percentage of your salary.
You may think that your employer will pay you your full salary for a decent period if you were off ill or if you had an accident, but dig out your contract and make sure this is the case. It is increasingly rare for employers to be generous in this situation, particularly with the increased legal requirements on them in other areas and with the continuing recession. Statutory Sick Pay (the minimum legal amount an employer must pay) is only £79.15 per week!
Redundancy payments are also continually being squeezed as a result of the current recession. If you are unfortunate enough to be made redundant there is an increasing likelihood that your redundancy payment may just be the legal minimum.
Importantly, independent protection products are normally much cheaper than those traditionally provided by lenders as there are fewer commissions to pay when calculating your premium.
Most lifestyle protection products are also extremely flexible, allowing you to change the amount of your commitments that you are covering, change how quickly claims would be paid (the excess period you have), how long claims are paid for (the benefit period) and in some cases even changing the type of cover you have as your lifestyle changes over the years.
Lifestyle Protection products offer a good value, flexible, comprehensive protection for a huge range of customers.
Learn more about Lifestyle Protection and get a quote today.
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