The\u00a0State of the Protection Nation\u00a0report[1] reveals that the top reason people gave for not taking out protection was that they think premiums are too expensive (69%). They also believe they won\u2019t get ill and they don\u2019t need insurance.\u00a0Despite this, many people want to protect their lifestyle and loved ones from the financial impact of dying or becoming seriously ill.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of the people surveyed (46%) felt they were unlikely to go on sick leave for three months or more, 44% thought they were unlikely to have an accident that meant they were unable to work, and a third (34%) felt it was unlikely they would contract a serious health condition or illness. Research[2]\u00a0shows that the chance of being off work for two months or more before age 65 is 26% for males and 37% for females.<\/p>\n
Even if illness struck, nearly half (43%) felt they could manage for a year if they were unable to work due to serious illness or injury, 55% said they would manage for six months, and 71% would manage for three months.\u00a0 Yet the reality is that only two in five could survive financially for more than six months if they were unable to work.<\/p>\n
Inertia plays a part in people\u2019s decision<\/strong> The results revealed inertia plays a part in people\u2019s decision not to buy, as 20% of full-time working people recognise they need income protection but don\u2019t have a policy.\u00a0Over a third (38%) of people working full-time feel they don\u2019t need income protection, but just 8% said they didn\u2019t need it because they had cover with their employer.<\/p>\n Lack of cover in line with people\u2019s needs<\/strong> A quarter (25%) of people who don\u2019t own any life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection said they were confident that this lack of cover was in line with their needs. This figure doesn\u2019t get much better when we look at those in full-time employment (30 hours a week or more), with 27% saying they were confident.<\/p>\n Source data:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> LIFE ASSURANCE PLANS TYPICALLY HAVE NO CASH IN VALUE AT ANY TIME, AND COVER WILL CEASE AT THE END OF THE TERM. IF PREMIUMS STOP, THEN COVER WILL LAPSE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Top reasons people gave for not taking out protection There are many things to consider when looking to protect you and your family. It may not be the most exciting of subjects, but it answers one of our most basic desires \u2013 to keep safe all that we hold dear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ashleighcourt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDespite only a small percentage of consumers saying they had life insurance (3%), critical illness cover (3%) and income protection (5%) through their employer, the majority of people felt they didn\u2019t need income protection (58%), critical illness cover (47%) and life insurance (34%).<\/p>\n
\nThe figures show that 58% of people with a mortgage have life cover in place if the home owner dies, leaving 42% unprotected.\u00a0But worryingly, 71% of people with a mortgage would have no protection in place if they were diagnosed with a critical illness, and 81% of mortgage owners have no income protection in place.\u00a0 The reason this is concerning is that people are far more likely to be diagnosed with a critical illness or have an injury that stops them working than to die before retirement age, so more people should consider critical illness or income protection.<\/p>\n
\n[1] Royal London\u2019s\u00a0\u2018State of the Protection Nation\u2019\u00a0report conducted by Opinium. 2,005 UK adults aged 18+ were surveyed from 9\u201312 January 2018. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.
\n[2] Source: Pacific Life Re, March 2018.\u00a0These figures have been produced based on their interpretation of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries\u2019 Continuous Mortality Investigation insured lives incidence rates together with their estimate view of future trends.\u00a0Incidence rates for the entire population may be different to those lives that take out insurance products.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n