Protect your income,
your home, your family.

What is personal protection insurance?

Personal protection insurance is an umbrella term for policies that protect you and your household against the financial consequences of death, serious illness and long-term incapacity. It is distinct from general insurance; you are not insuring a car or a house, you are insuring the income and the person that everything else depends on.

The starting point is not the product, it is the risk. If you died tomorrow, who would struggle financially and for how long? If you could not work for two years, what would run out first, savings, sick pay, or patience from your mortgage lender? Those two questions decide almost everything about the cover you actually need.

The four risks personal protection covers

Death. Life insurance pays a lump sum if you die during the policy term. It is the cheapest of the main protection products and the one most people start with, particularly when there is a mortgage or young children involved. Family income benefit does the same job but pays a monthly income instead, which many families find easier to manage than a single large sum.

Serious illness. Critical illness cover pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a specified condition, commonly cancer, heart attack and stroke, though good policies list far more. It pays whether or not you can still work, which makes it the right tool for one-off costs: adapting a home, clearing a debt, or simply buying time.

Being unable to work. Income protection replaces a proportion of your earnings each month if illness or injury stops you working, and keeps paying until you recover, retire, or the policy term ends. It is the most commonly under-bought protection product in the UK, and for anyone self-employed it is usually the single most important one.

Access to treatment. Private medical insurance is not protection in the same sense, it pays for treatment rather than replacing money, but it belongs in the same conversation, because faster treatment often means a faster return to work.

How much cover do you actually need?

There is no universal answer, but there is a reliable method. Add up what would have to be paid off, the mortgage and any other debts. Add the income your household would need to replace, and for how many years. Add one-off costs such as funeral expenses or childcare. Then subtract what you already have: employer death-in-service, existing policies, savings.

Our life insurance calculator and income protection calculator walk through that arithmetic. Treat the results as a starting point for a conversation, not a recommendation; an adviser will sanity-check the assumptions against your actual circumstances.

Where employer cover falls short

Many people assume they are already covered at work. Death-in-service is common and genuinely valuable, but it is usually a multiple of salary that stops the day you leave, and it rarely stretches to what a family with a mortgage would need. Employer sick pay is often generous for a few months and then drops to Statutory Sick Pay, which is nowhere near a replacement income.

The practical approach is to find out exactly what you have, then insure the gap rather than starting from zero.

Getting cover in place

All personal protection is medically underwritten, so the answers you give about your health and lifestyle determine both the price and whether a future claim is paid. Answer them fully and honestly; non-disclosure, even unintentional, is one of the most common reasons claims are disputed.

Cover Your Family does not give advice or arrange policies. We pass your enquiry to a separate, FCA-regulated adviser who assesses your circumstances, compares the market and arranges the cover. There is no charge to you at any stage.