Income Protection Cover

If you couldn’t work due to accident or sickness and lost your income as a result, you would still need to pay your rent or mortgage repayments, utility bills, loan repayments and all your other living expenses. If you are concerned about how you would manage this, then income protection might be something to consider.

Income protection is designed to provide a monthly cash benefit to replace lost wages. There are other ways to do this, for example you may be able to fall back on:

• Company sick pay allowance
• Claiming state benefits
• Using savings
• Family or partner support.

However, if you don’t think these would be enough or would help if you were off work for a long period then Income Protection Cover might provide an alternative safety net.

No. Cover is only available to residents of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Benefit payments that are available for loss of income due to sickness or accident are usually means tested. Therefore payouts from an income protection policy will affect your entitlement to state benefits. The amount you can claim will depend on your personal circumstances. You can check this with the Department of Work and Pensions or a financial adviser.

Income Protection can cover you if you are a permanent resident of the UK and are aged 18 to 60 at the start date. This includes those currently employed as an offshore worker, seafarer or mariner, whose permanent residence remains in the UK. You must be working for more than 16 hours per week and you must be permanently employed on a permanent (or fixed-term of more than 12 months) contract of employment or self-employed.

There are no medical questions and, if you meet the eligibility criteria, you are guaranteed to be accepted. If you suffer any pre-existing conditions then this will not affect your acceptance onto the policy but you will not automatically be covered for these conditions.

You will not be able to claim benefits for any chronic condition that you knew you were suffering from on or before the start date of your policy. A chronic condition is one that continues indefinitely; is controlled rather than cured; has recurring symptoms or requires long term treatment or monitoring.

You could be eligible for a waiver of the chronic condition exclusion if you:

• held a similar policy covering sickness and accident for more than 6 months before the start date of this policy.
• you did not knowingly suffer from that chronic condition at the start date of your previous policy.
• have not claimed on that previous policy in the 24 months before the start date of this policy.
• have replaced your previous policy with this policy.

This waiver would only apply to a corresponding level of Monthly Benefit provided by your previous policy. You will not be able to claim benefits for any medical condition that has been diagnosed or treated during the 12 months immediately before the start date and which comes back within 24 months after the start date. This exclusion will not be applied after 24 months have passed without treatment or advice for that medical condition.

You could be eligible for a waiver of the initial 24 months exclusion on a pre-existing medical condition if you:

• held a similar policy covering sickness and accident for more than 6 months before the start date of this policy.
• have not claimed on that similar policy in the 24 months before the start date of this policy.
• have replaced your previous policy with this policy.

This waiver would only apply to a corresponding level of monthly benefit provided by your previous policy.

Yes.  You can be covered if you carry on business in the UK alone or with others or if you work for a company that is controlled by your immediate family.

Yes, you can be covered if you are employed on a contract for a specific term or undertaking for at least 12 months duration.

Your policy provides monthly cash benefits if you can’t work due to sickness or accident for up to 12 months.

You must first complete and return the application pack to us. Once received and entered into our system, your cover will start immediately. We will send you an email or send you a letter (according to your mailing preferences) confirming your cover start date.

You policy will pay your benefits while you remain unable to work up to the maximum benefit period. Your benefits will stop when you return to work or when your maximum benefit period is reached, whichever is sooner. The maximum benefit period on this policy is 12 months.

This is a flexible policy which means you’re able to make changes to the cover as your personal requirements change. You can request an increase or decrease in:

• your monthly benefit
• your waiting period

All agreed changes will take effect from the next premium collection date. No changes can be made to your policy while you are claiming on your cover.

If you increase your cover the increase will not apply to a claim for any condition that you knew about before applying for the increase.

As long as your new job does not affect your eligibility to claim then your policy is unaffected – you must continue to work for more than 16 hours per week, under a permanent contract or fixed-term contract of employment and be working in the UK. You may want to check the level of cover is still appropriate if your conditions of employment or your salary/wages change.

The policy and any benefits you may be receiving will end on the earliest of the following:

• You reach 65 years of age
• Cease to be a UK resident
• You permanently retire
• Your death
• You fail to pay the premium when due

This policy is underwritten by Stonebridge International Insurance Ltd. It is arranged by Union Insurance Services which is a trading name of Union Income Benefit Holdings Ltd.

You can cancel the policy within 30 days of the start date and you will receive a refund of any premium you have paid, if no claim has been made. Following this you may cancel the cover at any time in writing to Union Income Benefit, 5th Floor, 154 – 160 Fleet Street, London, Blackfriars, EC4A 2DQ or by phone on 0343 178 1226, however you will not receive a refund of any premiums.

Claims for any condition resulting from a pandemic will not be covered by the policy.

Claims for any condition of stress, anxiety or depression will be considered.

Claims for spinal or related conditions are considered. However, we require physical or radiological evidence of a medical abnormality, confirmed by a suitably qualified consultant that the condition prevents you from working.

Benefits will not be payable if your claim results from a condition that you have had diagnosed or treated in the 12 months before the start date, a self-inflicted injury, drug and alcohol abuse or, under certain circumstances, from spinal conditions, stress, anxiety or depression.

That depends on the monthly benefit you’ve chosen. You can cover up to 50% of your gross income (which means 50% of your salary/wages before tax) up to a maximum of £1,500. In the event of a claim you will receive payments on a monthly basis and these will continue until you return to work or reach your maximum number of benefit payments.

Your benefits will pay out after your chosen waiting period. The waiting period is the number of consecutive days that you will need to be off work before any benefit will be due on your cover. You can choose a waiting period of 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 or 365 days. The longer the waiting period the lower your premiums will be. You should consider how long you could manage before you would want the benefits to pay out. For example: if you receive 3 months sick pay from your employer then you may want to choose a waiting period of 90 days.

If you have other payment protection insurance this may affect the amount of benefit paid by this policy. In the event of a claim you will be asked to provide details of any other income, repayment or payment protection insurance that you have. The monthly benefit paid by this insurance will be reduced so that the total of all the benefits paid does not exceed 50% of your gross monthly income. You will receive a proportionate refund of premium if this is the case.

Yes, you can claim more than once on this policy. If you are claiming again for a re-occurrence of the same condition then this may be considered a continuation of a previous claim. If you are claiming for a new condition then this will be treated as a new claim.

As with all insurances, there are certain exclusions on the cover which means that benefits will not be paid if you are off work as a result of one of them. For a full list of exclusions, please see the Policy Wording in the ‘Policy Documents’ tab.

In the event of a claim, please email customerservices@unioninsurance.co.uk or call our customer services team on 0343 178 1226 and they will send you a claim form.

Premiums will be collected from your nominated bank account by Direct Debit on the 1^st of each month or the next working day.

Your first premium will be collected on the 1^st of the month following the start date of your policy, unless this falls with the last 8 working days of the month.

If the start date of your policy falls within the last 8 working days of the month, the first premium collection will be on the 1^st working day of the next month.

Examples:

• if your policy start date is the 15^th of March, the first premium collection will be the 1^st April and one premium will be collected.
• if your policy start date is the 28^th of March, the first premium collection will be the 1^st May and one premium will be collected.

Yes, your premiums may change – they can go up or down and there is no limit to the amount that they can change. Your premiums are calculated based on your age and the level of cover that you select.

You will be given 14 days’ notice of any premium changes.