Do you have protection if the worst happens?

BRITONS are woefully underprotected should serious illness strike, according to new research.

Despite more than one-fifth of people admitting their household wouldn’t survive financially if they lost their income due to long-term illness, fewer than one in 10 have a critical illness policy.

People are, in fact, more likely to insure their mobile phones than to protect their own health.

Taking out life insurance also appears to be falling down the population’s priority list, with just 27 per cent having a life policy, equivalent to 14 million people.

Worryingly, this has dropped by seven per cent points compared with 2017 – a year-on-year decrease of 3.6 million individuals.

This is an especially precarious position for the two fifths of UK households that are reliant on just one income, and it’s clear that many are in lack of a plan B.

Despite 43 per cent of people saying they’d rely on their savings if they or their partner were ill and unable to work, a third admit their savings would last no more than three months if unable to work, and more than half say they’d last no longer than a year. Three in 10 – or 15.5 million people – say they aren’t saving anything at all.

One in five say they’d rely on state benefits if they or their partner were unable to work for six months, but at a time when welfare reform is resulting in significant changes to benefits such as child and working tax credits, income-based job seeker’s allowance, income support, housing benefits and bereavement benefits.

The research also revealed a lack of trust and understanding contributing to the UK’S protection gap.

People think that just a third of individual protection claims are paid out by insurance providers each year, based on the misconception that insurers will do anything not to pay.

In reality, however, virtually all protection insurance claims (97.8 per cent) were paid in 2017.

In addition, 78 per cent) of people are unaware that cover often comes with practical advice and emotional care, as well as financial support, without having to make a claim.

We increasingly think in the short term, caring more about tangible things in our day-to-day lives. We’re programmed not to think about the worst happening.

Together, these are dangerous inclinations, as people aren’t thinking about insuring their health or life until it’s too late.

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