Income Protection

Your clients can be paid a regular benefit if they can't work due to illness or injury

0333 006 3010

What is Income Protection?

Income Protection is a type of insurance which aims to help your clients keep some money coming in if they can’t work due to sickness or injury.

If they’re worried about how they would continue to pay their bills or continue to afford their lifestyle if they couldn’t work, it could be something for them to consider.

Key features of Income Protection

  • Your client can choose a benefit amount of between £500 and £6,000, up to a maximum of 70% of your earnings. If you choose a 5-year claim period the maximum benefit you can choose is £2,000.
  • A choice of 1, 2 or 5-years benefit period.
  • Protect your client against a fall in earnings between your policy starting and the time of your claim. You can protect them up to £3,000 a month of their main benefit by submitting proof of earnings within 6 months of their policy starting.
  • Get support for your client’s recovery and rehabilitation while we're managing your claim. We'll pay up to a maximum of £1,500 a year to help cover their expenses for 2 private consultations and for physical/mental health therapies.
  • Choose when you want your client’s benefit to start from after their claim - 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days.
  • Your client has the option to pay extra to cover an enhanced list of hazardous pursuits. They can choose cover of between £500 and £2,000 a month, up to their selected amount of main benefit. If they choose a 5-year claim period, the maximum hazardous pursuits cover would be £500 per month. Find out more below.
  • Unlimited access to our Friendly GP service available 24/7, including phone and video consultations, private prescriptions and open referrals.
  • Option to have guaranteed or reviewable payments.

Premium Options

There are 3 ways that you can pay for an Income Protection policy.

  • Level guaranteed payments

    Your client’s monthly payment will stay the same for the whole time they have the policy as long as their cover options stay the same.

  • Age-costed guaranteed

    Your client’s monthly payment is likely to rise each year due to your age, but won’t otherwise change as long as their cover options stay the same.

  • Age-costed reviewable payments

    Your client’s monthly payment is likely to increase each year by their age, and will be reviewed every 5 years

As well as the 3 payment options above, your client is able to choose if they want their policy benefits to increase each year to help keep up with inflation and any increases in their earnings. If they choose this option, their payment will increase each year to reflect their higher cover.

To help make things clearer, the table below shows when each payment type can be reviewed and/or changed.

  Each year
by age		 At a five
year review		 Each year if I
have chosen
Escalating
benefits		 Any other
reason
Age-costed
reviewable		 Yes Yes Yes Only if
taxation
changes
Age-costed
guaranteed		 Yes No Yes
Level
guaranteed		 No No Yes

Our Income Protection cover includes:

A back to work benefit which pays a proportionate benefit if your client returns to work on lower earnings than before.
An accidental death benefit option - if your client selects this option and dies as a result of an accident within 30 days of that accident, we’ll pay a lump sum equating to 1, 2 or 5 years' main benefit, whichever they choose when they apply.
A contingency benefit that provides a maximum benefit of £500 a month for a policy maximum of 12 months if your client is working less than 16 hours a week and they’re unable to carry out their normal role due to an accident.
A flexible policy end date - choice for the policy to end at any birthday between ages 50 and 70.
An option to change your cover for certain benefits at a later date to match your changing needs.
Our guaranteed insurability option which allows your client to increase their cover without medical checks for certain life events.
An option for increased cover each year, to take account of inflation and increases in your earnings. Clients’ payments will increase to reflect the higher cover.
No need for your client to make any payments whilst they’re receiving benefit from us.
Policy Summary
Policy Conditions

Hazardous Pursuits

Our Income Protection includes cover for some leisure activities as standard. But we also offer you the option to pay extra to cover an enhanced list of what we call ‘hazardous pursuits’. Hobbies and pastimes categorised as hazardous pursuits include activities such as rock climbing and skydiving.

The full list of hazardous pursuits covered can be found here. Any hobbies or pastimes not on the list will not be covered.

Help cover the costs your client might face as a result of a bone fracture

A cash payout can’t heal them – they'll need time for that. But it can help them meet the costs associated with the impact of their injury.  

The pay-out they receive will be determined by which category fracture they’ve suffered. 

Your client can claim for a range of fractures classified as Minor, Moderate or Major. This cover areas from their skull down to their feet and range from £1,000 to £3,000. 

More information on fracture cover can be found here.

Fracture Cover Brochure

Free access to Friendly GP and Friendly GP+

Our virtual GP service, Friendly GP, is a free added benefit on your clients’ policy which can be accessed over the phone or online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This means your clients always have easy access to a doctor when they need their help.

Find out more aboutFriendly GP and Friendly GP+.

  • 24/7 unlimited GP telephone consultations
  • Video consultations
  • Private prescriptions
  • Open referrals

How our members rate Friendly GP

Our Friendly GP service provides your client with peace of mind that they can access a GP for themselves and their family at any time, day or night.

Our members have rated the service:

Overall satisfaction

100%

for the overall experience they received as excellent, very good or good.

Recommended

100%

agreed they would recommend Friendly GP to a friend or colleague.

GP helpline star rating

100%

rated the helpline as 5 stars or 4 stars.

Data taken from reviews between January and May 2024.

Our underwriting approach: pragmatic, flexible and friendly

Our underwriters manage every case individually and appreciate that everything isn’t always black and white.

This means:

  • A personalised approach to underwriting for mental health.
  • We can change underwriting exclusions and loadings to consider personal circumstances.
  • We’ll consider chronic conditions and higher risk occupations.
  • We’re happy to talk through complex medical conditions and use existing medical evidence to provide cover quicker.
  • We work with reinsurers and claim specialists to make sure we’re responsive, fair and consistent in our decision-making process.

Our team of experienced underwriters provide a sensible, empathetic approach and are always happy to talk through any questions you may have.

Find out more

0333 006 3010 Monday to Friday / 9am - 5pm

Your questions answered

To apply for a policy clients have to be:

  • aged between 18 to 59 when the policy starts
  • working and living in the UK, excluding Northern Ireland. This doesn’t include the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
  • working at least 16 hours a week
  • able to pay for it from a UK bank account
  • registered with a UK doctor with access to at least the last two years of their medical records

Your clients can choose a benefit amount of between £500 and £6,000 a month. This is limited to £2,000 a month where they choose a benefit period of 5 years. The benefit they choose cannot exceed 70% of their earnings when their policy starts and we’ll check this when they claim.

This policy is designed to cover policyholders living and working in the UK. It will also cover claims which start whilst they’re in a country in the European Union, or in a limited list of other countries which can be found in the Policy Conditions.

If your client’s been working less than 16 hours a week for more than 3 months when their injury or illness starts they will not be eligible for the main benefit. But they may be entitled to our contingency benefit of £500 per month.

All policies come with free access to our virtual GP service. It’s called Friendly GP and it can be accessed over the phone or online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We’ll give them the full details on how they can access it when they take out a policy or they can go to our Existing Members page to find out more.

Any other questions?

If there’s anything else you want to know or you’d like to talk through your options, please give us a call on 0333 014 6244 and we’ll be happy to help.

We’re here from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays. Calls are recorded for training and quality purposes.

Next steps

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0333 014 6244

Monday to Friday / 8am – 6pm

Important information

  • Inflation will mean any benefit we pay is likely to have less buying power in the future, even if they choose an increasing benefit.
  • The policy won’t pay out immediately after an illness or injury. There will always be a waiting period.
  • The policy will pay out for a maximum of one, two or five years on any claim. Your client will choose one of these terms when you apply.
  • If your client cancels their policy they’ll get nothing back.
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