What is income protection insurance?
Income protection insurance is an insurance policy that regularly provides the policyholder with a percentage of their income if they are unable to work due to illness or injury. This regular income will continue either for an agreed period or until the policyholder retires or they are able to return to work.
Income protection for individuals
One of the income protection insurance products that we offer is designed for individuals, who want to insure themselves against a loss of income due to being unable to work through illness or injury.
With an income replacement plan from Wiltshire Friendly, you will receive regular payments to replace part of your lost income, making sure that you are personally protected. By choosing an individual income protection product, you are able to select the amount of cover you want, and choose how quickly you want your claim payments to start - meaning that you are in total control of the monthly premiums that you pay and can choose a level of cover that suits your budget.
As well as this, after insuring with Wiltshire Friendly for two years, you start to share in any surpluses that we make. Cash sums can build up in your plan, and it can continue to grow, even if you claim!
With Wiltshire Friendly, you can be sure that we will be there to help you when you need our financial support. In fact, in 2023, we were able to pay 97.96% of all claims made to us!
Group Income Protection Insurance
Alongside our individual product offering, Wiltshire Friendly also provides Group Income Protection for businesses. Group Income Protection is an insurance policy that an employer takes out to provide financial protection to employees in the event they are unable to work due to illness or injury.
There are two different types of Group Income Protection insurance, both available through Wiltshire Friendly: employer funded Group Income Protection, and employee funded Group Income Protection.
Employer funded Group Income Protection
Employer funded Group Income Protection is a benefit that is claimed by the employer on behalf of their employees and is passed onto the employee through normal payroll. When businesses choose employer funded income protection policies, they are able to choose the level of protection that they provide to their employees based on their earnings.
The maximum benefit that businesses can insure for each employee is 75% of their yearly salary to a maximum sum insured of £180,000 annually. Your claim can be paid for a period of time ranging between 6 months and when the employee reaches retirement age. However, the claim payments will stop when the employee returns to work.
Employee funded Group Income Protection
Small businesses may be unable to fund Group Income Protection. If this is the case, a Group Personal Income Replacement Plan is a perfect way to provide your employees with the benefits of income protection insurance, without having to fund it directly.
A Group Personal Income Protection Plan is set up by the employer. However, the plan is paid for by the employee themselves, and so each individual employee can choose the level of cover that is right for them.
Sports Income Protection
Playing sport regularly, regardless of whether it is at professional, semi-professional or amateur level, increases your risk of injury and so there is a financial risk from not working. Wiltshire Friendly have been providing income protection insurance specifically to sports players since 2011.
The plans replace a proportion of income lost when a player is unable to continue working due to illness or injury, regardless of whether it occurred through playing sport.
Depending on the level of sport played, we offer different plans designed for players in their specific sports.
Professional Sports Income Protection
Our Professional plans are designed specifically for professional players and have been tailored to fit with the sick pay benefits a player gets included within their contract.
Depending on your sport, you will have plan term options to choose between which will impact the amount of premiums you pay. Because we have over 10 years of experience in insuring professional players, we have built an understanding of the sports world and related injuries, which means that we are able to efficiently assess existing medical conditions if necessary.
As well as this, when players have career-ending injuries, we work alongside them to manage their claim and support them towards a different occupation.
Semi-professional Sports Income Protection
For semi-professionals, we can insure your day job and also your sports job income. You are able to choose the amount of cover and the claim payment terms to suit your requirements and work with any existing sick pay from your club or existing income protection you might have.
We do acknowledge the extra risk that comes with playing sports semi-professionally. Because of this, we add specific terms applying to any sports-related injury.
Amateur Sports Income Protection
Amateur sports people are offered our standard individual plan. Again, to acknowledge the enhanced risk that comes with regular sport, we might add extra terms that will apply to sports-related injuries. These terms, however, will not be added to an illness or injury that has not been caused as a direct result of the sport.