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Understand your potential monthly income gap
Income Protection Insurance
Income Protection Insurance can provide a regular benefit if illness or injury leaves you unable to work and you meet the policy’s definition of incapacity, helping you continue meeting essential commitments such as your mortgage, rent and household bills. Choosing suitable cover involves important decisions around benefit level, deferred period, payment period, incapacity definitions, exclusions and underwriting. A protection adviser can assess your income, sick pay, savings and financial commitments, then explain and recommend appropriate options based on your circumstances rather than price alone.
Your Monthly Income Gap = essential monthly commitments − reliable income
What Is Income Protection Insurance?
Income protection insurance pays a regular benefit if illness or injury prevents you from working and you meet the policy’s definition of incapacity. It normally replaces part of your earnings, rather than your full income, and payments begin after the deferred period selected when the policy is arranged.
If a claim is accepted, the benefit is paid directly to you. It can be used towards the costs that continue while you are unable to work, including your mortgage or rent, household bills, food, childcare and loan repayments. The amount paid and how long payments continue will depend on your policy.
Standard income protection is intended for an inability to work because of illness or injury. It is different from redundancy insurance, which is designed around involuntary job loss, and critical illness cover, which pays a one-off lump sum when a specified condition meets the policy definition.
Get a Income Protection Insurance QuoteFree
Advice and guidance on what you need19 days
is how long the average UK employee’s savings would last if their income stopped.Statutory Sick Pay may be substantially lower than your normal income, and employer sick pay arrangements vary. An Income Protection review should start by identifying when your existing support ends and what monthly shortfall would remain.Could your household manage if your normal earnings stopped?
The 2025 Income Protection statistics are excellent
Source: Association of British Insurers, June 2026.
£10,700
Average individual Income Protection claim 2025.
£209 million
Paid in individual Income Protection claims during 2025.
£39 million
Mental-health related Income Protection payouts in 2025.
We work with UK Leading Insurance Providers
Access The Most Suitable Cover at The Most Affordable Prices
Our protection specialists can scan our providers, once we understand your requirements and find you the right insurance that fits your needs.
Request a call backThe Income Protection Insurance Process
Income protection involves more than choosing a monthly benefit. Our advisers look at the wider picture, explain the trade-offs and stay involved through the application, so you are not left to interpret policy wording on your own.
Step 1: Review your income gap
We discuss your earnings, employer sick pay, savings, other household income, existing policies and essential monthly commitments. This shows when a shortfall could begin and how much support may be useful.
Step 2: Compare suitable options
We review the options available through our service and explain the benefit level, deferred period, claim period, definition of incapacity, premium basis and exclusions. Where cover is appropriate, we set out our recommendation, its cost and the compromises involved.
Step 3: Apply and complete underwriting
If you decide to proceed, we help complete the application and liaise with the insurer. The insurer may ask for medical or financial information before deciding whether to offer cover and on what terms. We explain any changes before you decide whether to accept them.
A new job, a change in pay, taking out a mortgage or having a child can all affect how much you rely on your income. If your circumstances change, we can look at your policy again and check whether the cover still makes sense.
Could Income Protection Suit Your Circumstances?
Start by checking the support already available to you. That may include employer sick pay, an existing workplace policy, savings, another household income or cover you arranged previously. The key question is how long those resources could meet your essential costs if your earnings stopped.
When it may be useful
When you may not need it
A separate policy may be less important if you have long-term employer sick pay or group income protection, enough accessible savings to meet your costs for an extended period, or another reliable household income that could cover the gap. Existing personal cover may also make a new policy unnecessary.
That does not mean the answer is automatically yes or no. A protection review should identify the shortfall first, then consider whether insurance is a proportionate and affordable way to address it.
Book A Free Protection ReviewWhat Affects The Cost Of Income Protection?
There is no standard price for income protection. The premium reflects your circumstances and the way the policy is set up. Insurers may consider:
Own occupation: you cannot perform the main duties of the job you were doing before the illness or injury.
Suited occupation: you cannot do your own job or another role suited to your training, experience and skills.
Any occupation: you cannot carry out any form of work. Some policies use a separate test based on specified work or daily-living activities.
This definition can make a material difference to whether a claim is accepted. It should be considered alongside the price, not treated as small print.
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What May Not Be Covered?
Income protection is not blanket cover for every absence from work. The insurer assesses your application and may apply exclusions, alter the premium or offer different terms. The outcome depends on the provider, the policy and the information supplied. Examples of situations that may not be covered include:
- A medical condition, symptom or investigation that the insurer has specifically excluded.
- An occupational duty, hazardous activity or other risk excluded in the policy terms.
- An illness or injury that does not meet the selected definition of incapacity.
- Redundancy, dismissal or another loss of work that is not caused by illness or injury.
- A claim made before the deferred period has ended, after the policy has lapsed or outside the policy term.
Answer every application question accurately and review the insurer’s terms before accepting a recommendation. Missing or inaccurate information can affect a later claim. An adviser can explain the wording, but the insurer decides whether a claim meets the policy conditions.
Request a Tailored Cover Review Income Protection For Employees And Self-Employed People
If you are employed
Check your employment contract, staff handbook or benefits portal before choosing cover. Confirm how much occupational sick pay you receive, when it reduces and whether a workplace income protection scheme already exists. A personal policy can then be timed to begin when that support falls away, rather than duplicating it.
If you are self-employed
Self-employed people can apply for income protection, subject to the insurer’s eligibility and underwriting. With no employer sick pay, the deferred period may need to reflect the savings or business income available during an absence. The insurer may ask for accounts, tax calculations or other evidence of earnings, and fluctuating income needs careful assessment.
If you are a company director
A director may be considering either a personal policy or a company-funded insurance arrangement. Salary, dividends, policy ownership and tax treatment can affect how cover is structured and how a benefit is assessed. This needs advice specific to the business and should not be treated as identical to a standard personal application.
How Income Protection Differs From critical Illness And Redundancy Cover
These policies protect different events and pay in different ways. One is not a substitute for another simply because each can support household finances.
Income Protection
Pays a regular benefit when illness or injury leaves you unable to work and you meet the policy definition. Payments begin after the deferred period and continue for the permitted claim period.
Critical Illness Cover
Pays a one-off lump sum if you are diagnosed with a condition covered by the policy and meet its definition. A diagnosis can qualify even where you are able to keep working, while an illness that prevents work will not qualify unless it is one of the conditions covered.
Redundancy Cover
Is designed around involuntary unemployment rather than medical incapacity. It is generally short-term and can include waiting periods, eligibility conditions and exclusions relating to known or anticipated job losses.
Why Clients Choose The Mortgage Broker For Income Protection Advice
Income protection policies can differ in how much they pay, when payments begin and how long they can continue. Our advisers take the time to understand your work, income, sick pay and regular outgoings before talking you through the options. We help employees, self-employed people and company directors, including those with variable income or less straightforward working arrangements.
Advice Without The Jargon
We’ll explain deferred periods, claim periods and definitions of incapacity in plain English, so you understand what a policy covers and where its limits are.
A Review Built Around Your Income
We start with the income you would lose, the support you already have and the costs that would still need paying. This helps us identify the gap you may want to protect.
Support For Different Ways Of Working
Whether you’re employed, self-employed or a company director, we’ll explain how your occupation and earnings could affect the cover and terms available.
Help From Review To Application
If you decide to apply, we’ll help with the paperwork, explain any information the insurer requests and keep you updated while it considers your application.
FCA-Regulated Protection Advice
Your adviser will assess your circumstances before making a recommendation. You’ll have time to review the policy terms and ask questions before deciding whether to proceed.
Advice With No Fees
The Mortgage Broker have a team of protection specialists that are qualified, experienced and free of charge to speak to. As part of our commitment to our clients, we offer an entirely free service for protection advice.
Not sure how much of your income you would need to protect? We can help you work out the potential shortfall and explain the options available.
Meet Our Protection Advisers
Our protection advisers can review the cover you already have and check whether it still fits your life today. They will look at what has changed, whether anything is missing and whether you are paying for cover you no longer need.
Matt Cotter
Senior Protection Adviser
Request an Income Protection Insurance Quote
Tell us a bit about your job, your income, and the financial commitments you’d need to cover if illness or injury stopped you from working. A protection adviser will talk through your situation, explain your options, and help you get a quote for suitable cover.
There’s no obligation to go ahead, and you’ll have plenty of time to ask any questions before deciding.