Income protection also known as permanent health insurance provides a replacement income if you were to be unable to work if you are sick, disabled or if you have had an accident. Exeter Family Friendly offers 3 types of income protection.
Income One
Pure Protection
Bills and Things
All three have a number of common characteristics in that the premiums you pay are based on your age at that particular time. As your get older your premiums will rise however the rate of the rise is known from the start as the rate tables applicable to each age is within the policy terms and conditions called “all your need to know”.This way of applying the cost of your insurance is typical of friendly societies and can mean that you benefit from cheaper insurance when you’re young and pay more when the risk is higher as you get older.The cover is excellent as claims are assessed on your ability to do your own job with no re-assessment at any time to see if a claimant can do other work rather than continuing to claim on their cover.Exeter Family Friendly – Income OneIncome One policy is for low risk non-manual workers typically white collar workers who maybe office based. To qualify for the cover you need to fit within one of the eligible occupations and earn over £867 per month and also drive less than 25,000 business miles per year.The policy is in essence exactly the same as their Pure Protection policy and can cover 65% of gross earnings although Income One has lower premium rates.The key benefit other than price is the ability to fix all or a proportion of your monthly benefit so that in the event of a claim the amount of fixed benefit you have fixed will be paid without any financial evidence of your earnings. So even if your income reduces at the time of a claim you will still get the amount of cover you fixed at the outset.Exeter Family Friendly – Pure ProtectionThis policy covers most manual workers and tradesmen with a few exceptions. Pilots offshore oil rig workers, police, fire-fighters are the main occupations not eligible to have any cover with Exeter.Exeter Family Friendly – Bills and ThingsWith Bills and Things policy the benefit on this cover in unrelated to earnings. This allows the insured to cover more than they earn and also ignores continuing income from employment, self-employment or dividend income and other protection policies. This is ideal where cover is required but proving earnings is difficult. The main downside is cover is limited to pay for 1 or 2 years per claim event and depends on the option you have selected at outset. The monthly benefit starts at £500 and rising up in £100 segments up to a maximum monthly benefit amount of £1,000 per month.When will it Pay Out?With Income One and Pure Protection the waiting period you choose at outset will decide the period of time you will need to wait before a claim is payable. The earliest a claim can be considered is from day 3 excluding a Sunday and if you have selected this waiting period option the claim will be paid back to the first day of your absence from work.However choosing a short waiting period will increase the risk of a claim and therefore expect to pay a higher premium for this level of cover. If affordability is an issue you could also consider having a longer waiting period of 1 week, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 13 weeks, 26 weeks or 52 weeks.With Bills and Things policy the waiting period is set a 4 weeks with no option to select as sooner or later option.UnderwritingThe application process is available via two routes, either a short applicable with just basic information followed by a telephone interview or a full medical application. Whichever option you go with you will need to apply via a broker as they will not offer cover direct.ClaimsAll providers offer information about claims statistics. With Exeter Family Friendly they have paid the following claims:• 2011 95% of all claims received were paid• 2010 95% of all claims received were paid• 2009 94% of all claims received were paidSummaryExeter’s cover is overall excellent and fits with most requirements unless you want premiums that are fixed from the outset (guaranteed with no age rises) or you need to cover more than 65% of earnings.Other Similar PoliciesBritish Friendly offer similar long term income protection cover which in terms of cover is on par with Exeter’s Pure Protection but with the ability to cover 70% of earnings. Over the long term however Exeter will work out better value as they have lower age rated premium increases.British Friendly also offers a limited claim period similar to Exeter’s Bills and Things but has the option to choose a longer claim period of 1, 2, 3 or 5 years and a cover benefit up to £3,791 per month. Making British Friendly an affordable limited cover option where quality cover is required.
