In todays busy lifestyles it is far to easy to be suddenly struck by an accident which puts you out of action for a lengthy period of time. It is another sad fact that your employer may not provide as much sick pay as you'd have liked and help from state benefits is minimal. Statutory Sick Pay is paid at £72.55 per week and you may even find that you are not eligible to claim that!

A vast majority of people would find it difficult to survive on Statutory Sick Pay alone and would find it extremely difficult to pay the bills, keep the mortgage going and put food on the table. Plus with government moves to reduce the number of people able to claim incapacity benefit, you may find that in the long term things could get even worse!

Income Protection Insurance (also know as Permanent Health Insurance or PHI) offers a solution to these problems and provides a tax free monthly income if you are suffering from an incapacity which prevents you from working. This monthly income would be paid either until you were fit enough to return to work or until your selected retirement age if you are unable to return to work before that age.

The actual premium you pay for Income Protection Insurance takes into account a number of different factors:

• Amount of Benefit Required
• Deferrment Period (How long you want to wait before the policy starts paying)
• Your Occupation
• Your Age when you take out the policy
• Smoker Status
• Estimated retirement age
• Health and Medical History