Here's a question most people have never seriously thought about: if you couldn't work tomorrow (illness, injury, accident, anything) how long could you actually manage?
Think about your monthly outgoings. The mortgage or rent. Bills, food, childcare. Now look at your savings. How many months does that cover before things start to fall apart?
For most households, the honest answer is uncomfortable. And yet income protection, the insurance designed specifically for this scenario, is one of the least-discussed policies in the UK.
What income protection actually is
Income protection is a policy that pays you a regular income if you're unable to work due to illness or injury. Unlike life insurance, which pays a lump sum, it pays out monthly, replacing a portion of your earnings (typically around 60% to 65% of your gross income) for as long as you're unable to work, up to a maximum age you choose when you take out the policy.
It covers the things that life insurance doesn't: the long months or years of being unable to work, rather than the moment of death.
How the numbers work
The deferred period
This is the waiting period between when you stop working and when the policy starts paying. Most people choose 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 13 weeks, or 26 weeks. The longer the deferred period, the lower the premium, but the more you need to survive on savings in the meantime.
If your employer pays full sick pay for three months, choosing a 13-week deferred period makes sense. If you're self-employed with no sick pay at all, you might want the shortest deferred period you can afford.
The benefit amount
You can insure around 60% to 65% of your gross income, and the exact figure varies by insurer. The reason it's not 100% is to maintain an incentive to return to work. For most people, 60% of gross income is close to their net (take-home) pay, so the policy maintains their lifestyle without making them financially better off sick than working.
The payment period
Some policies pay out to a set age (e.g. until you'd reach retirement at 65 or 67). These "long-term" or "full-term" policies are the gold standard. Others only pay for 1, 2, or 5 years per claim. These are cheaper, but you'd need to recover or find another income within that window.
What about statutory sick pay?
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) currently pays up to £123.25 a week for up to 28 weeks (2026/27 rate). That is roughly £534 a month. If your mortgage is £1,200 a month and you have a family to support, you can see the gap immediately. SSP is a safety net, not a solution.
Common reasons people don't get it
"I'll be fine, I'm healthy"
Most long-term absence claims aren't from people who were unhealthy. They're from people who had no warning: a disc problem that flared up, a diagnosis that came out of nowhere, a mental health crisis. You don't know it's coming until it has.
"My employer will look after me"
Some employers do. Most provide Statutory Sick Pay only. Check your contract: specifically what your employer pays, and for how long. Most people are surprised by how little it is.
"I can't afford it"
A policy for a 30-year-old non-smoker protecting £2,500 a month with a 13-week deferred period often costs less than £30–40 per month. The cost of not having it (losing your home, draining savings, relying on family) is substantially higher.
Who needs it most?
- Self-employed people with no employer sick pay
- Single-income households where one person's salary covers everything
- People with a mortgage and no savings buffer
- Anyone with dependants who rely on their income
- People in physically demanding roles with a higher injury risk
That covers a lot of people. The question isn't really "do I need it." It's "how would I cope without it."