Income Protection

Get paid a regular benefit if you can't work due to illness or injury

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What is Income Protection?

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

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

Key features of Income Protection

  • You 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 yourself against a fall in earnings between your policy starting and the time of your claim. You can protect up to £3,000 a month of your main benefit by submitting proof of earnings within 6 months of your policy starting.
  • Get support for your recovery and rehabilitation while we're managing your claim. We'll pay up to a maximum of £1,500 a year to help cover your expenses for 2 private consultations and for physical/mental health therapies.
  • Choose when you want your benefit to start from after your claim - 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days.
  • You have the option to pay extra to cover an enhanced list of hazardous pursuits. You can choose cover of between £500 and £2,000 a month, up to your selected amount of main benefit. If you 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.

Your payment options

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

  • Level guaranteed payments

    Your monthly payment will stay the same for the whole time you have the policy as long as your cover options stay the same.

  • Age-costed guaranteed

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

  • Age-costed reviewable payments

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

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

The 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 is a proportionate benefit if you return to work on lower earnings than before.
A flexible policy end date – you can choose for your policy to end at any birthday between ages 50 and 70.
An option for increased cover each year, to take account of inflation and increases in your earnings. Your payments will increase to reflect the higher cover.
An accidental death benefit option - if you select this option and die 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 you choose when you apply.
Our guaranteed insurability option which allows you to increase your cover without medical checks for certain life events.
No need to make any payments whilst you are receiving benefit from us.
An option to change your cover for certain benefits at a later date to match your changing needs.
A contingency benefit that provides a maximum benefit of £500 a month for a maximum of 12 months if you are working for less than 16 hours a week and you’re unable to carry out your normal role due to an accident or sickness.
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 Bouldering and Motor Sports. More information on our hazardous pursuits can be found here.

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

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

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

The payout you receive will be determined by which category of fracture you’ve suffered.

You can claim for a range of fractures classified as Minor, Moderate or Major. They cover areas from your skull down to your 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

Free access to Friendly GP 

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

This means you always have easy access to a doctor when you need their help. 

Find out more about Friendly 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 you with peace of mind that you can access a GP for you and your 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

Underwriting is an important part of our application process. It's where we review your medical history and other aspects of your life to help us decide what protection we can offer you. 

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 014 6244 Monday to Friday / 8am - 6pm

Your questions answered

To apply for a policy you have to be:

  • aged between 18 to 59 when your policy starts working and living in the UK (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 your medical records

You can choose benefit amount of between £500 and £6,000 a month in £10 monthly increments. This is limited to £2,000 a month where you choose a 5-year benefit period. The benefit you choose cannot exceed 70% of your earnings when your policy starts and we’ll check this when you claim.

This policy is designed to cover policyholders living and working in the UK. It will also cover claims which start whilst you’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 you’ve been working less than 16 hours a week for more than 3 months when your injury or illness starts you will not be eligible for the main benefit. But you may be entitled to our contingency benefit of £500 a month.

Your policy comes 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 you the full details when you take out a policy or you can visit our Existing Members page to find out more.

If you are looking to make a claim, please head over to our Claims page. There you will find more information on how to contact us and how we can help guide you through the process.

We set a standard payment across all accepted occupation types. Your cover will renew automatically each year unless you tell us you no longer want it. Find out more about fracture cover here.

Any other questions?

If there’s anything else you want to know, 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. Calls from UK landlines and mobiles cost no more than a call to a 01 or 02 number and will count towards any inclusive minutes.

Request a callback

How to apply

Request a callback

Our friendly team can talk you through your options to help you to decide what level of cover is best for you.

Choose this option if you:

  • Want to get a quote
  • Need help deciding if this is the best policy for you
  • Have any questions you want to ask

0333 014 6244

Monday to Friday / 8am - 6pm

Important information

  • You won’t be covered for unemployment or for sickness
  • To be covered, accidents have to result in an impact injury
  • We won’t make any payments which takes you over 70% of your earnings at the time of claim
  • Your payments/premiums will go up each year based on your age, or will stay level for 5 years, depending on what type you’ve chosen.
Existing Members
Underwriting
Contact us