FIVE ASIDE

Do you always over spend at the supermarket? Curb your impulse spending by always putting back five items after you have finished your shop, online or in store. This will help you work out what items are essential and cut your costs quicker than you might think.

CORONAVIRUS has affected the availability and terms and conditions of some insurance products.

Adam Higgs, head of research at protection experts Protection Guru, says the number of weeks before some sickness benefits are paid out lengthened on policies after the pandemic.

However, Adam, pictured below, says there has not been much indication of rising prices for the policies, despite record numbers of life insurance payouts.

He adds that there have been fewer payouts from critical illness policies, simply because many people have not been tested or diagnosed with critical illnesses, since they have not been visiting their GPs.

Scott Gallacher, financial adviser at Rowley Turton in Leicester, adds that it has been harder to get policies for older clients, with insurers limiting the ages they are willing to cover.

‘Hopefully this will reverse shortly with the vaccination programme protecting the most vulnerable,’ he says. The pandemic has also made it virtually impossible to obtain one type of protection insurance: unemployment cover or employment protection insurance.

This insurance, as the name suggests, pays out if you lose your job and is often tied into an insurance policy called Accident, Sickness And Unemployment cover (ASU).

However, most insurers have now removed unemployment cover from their policies.

Adam, at Protection Guru, says it isn’t yet clear when these policies might become available again.