Insure against disability

PROTECTION: FINANCIAL SAFETY NET IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO WORK

You are nine times more likely to have a temporary disability than to have your car stolen.

Most of us cannot imagine a freak accident causing a permanent disability – and from a risk perspective our instincts would be right.

It’s not the freak accidents we need to be fearful of, but the less ghoulish risks such as heart disease, diabetes and joint disorders that place us at risk of being temporarily or permanently incapacitated.

Recent research has revealed that most South Africans are hopelessly underinsured in respect of disability – a situation brought about by a combination of affordability, lack of information on how insurance works, a misunderstanding of what causes disability, together with a healthy dose of “it’ll never happen to me”.

From an insurance perspective, the four greatest risks facing us are temporary illness or injury, permanent disability, critical illness and death – with injury and temporary illness being the greatest risks to our working careers. In fact, a person is nine times more likely to have a temporary disability than to have their car stolen or hijacked.

According to Stats SA, there are currently 2.8 million South Africans living with disabilities, with younger people more adversely affected because they have not had as much time to create a financial buffer.

Disability cover is widely available and generally takes the form of either a lump-sum benefit or an income-protection benefit.

The purpose of disability insurance

Picture: Shutterstock About 70% of people will have at least one disability in their working careers that will prevent them from earning on either a temporary or permanent basis.