If illness stopped you working,
could you cover the bills?
Add up your essential monthly outgoings, factor in your employer's sick pay, and see how much monthly benefit an income protection policy would need to provide.
Suggested benefit: ≈ /month
- Essential monthly outgoings
- Suggested waiting (deferred) period
- Statutory Sick Pay, once employer sick pay ends
- Monthly gap SSP would leave
Insurers typically cap cover at around 50–65% of your gross pay — your essentials come to more than that, so this suggestion is set at the cap. The benefit is usually paid tax-free, which softens the difference — worth discussing.
A longer waiting period before the policy starts paying usually means a lower premium — if your employer pays full sick pay for a while, you can often match the waiting period to it.
Your essential outgoings are higher than your take-home pay — worth double-checking your figures.
Indicative only — not advice, and not a quote.
These numbers are a starting point, not the final answer.