Income Insurance Eligibility

There are other providers of Short Term Income Protection and other products designed to protect you against loss of income. For impartial information about insurance, please visit the website at: www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/yourmoney. A typical monthly cost for Paymentshield Short Term Income Protection is £5.15 for every £100 of monthly benefit. *

To be eligible for our income insurance policy, we ask that you meet the following requirements:

Be 18 or over and under 64 when the cover is purchased
Be in paid work for at least 16 hours a week
Live in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man
Be in continuous full-time employment with your current employer or continuously self-employed for a period of at least 6 months or be a fixed term contract worker for at least 24 months continuous, consecutive months immediately before the start date of the policy
Not be registered as unemployed in the 12 months before the start date of the policy
Be unaware of any circumstances which may result in making a claim under this policy

If you wish to take out unemployment cover, then in the 6 months before the policy start date we ask that you also meet the following criteria:

Have not received formal or informal notification that your own job is at risk
Your employer must not have formally announced its intention to make job cuts, made any mandatory reductions to basic salaries or contractual working hours to the workforce at the location of your job
Your company or the company that you are employed by is not either in administration or has not announced formally or informally that it is going into administration, receivership or liquidation.

There are unfortunately some circumstances when you would not be eligible for cover. These include:

Those whose work is casual, temporary or seasonal (including any work for a temporary employment agency)
Those who are in any kind of work where unemployment is a regular or reoccurring feature of that particular job
Those who work less than 16 hours per week
Fixed term contract workers who are not applying for a new credit agreement for a secured or unsecured loan or have not taken a new credit agreement for a secured or unsecured loan within 60 days of the insurance start date

Things to be aware of...

As with all insurance policies there are certain circumstances, known as exclusions, when you will not be able to make a claim. Full details of the policy exclusions can be found within our Policy Document.

Before being eligible to claim, you must be 12 months symptom free of a pre-existing condition, prior to the policy start date. If you do have a pre-existing condition and you are symptom free and have not consulted a doctor or received treatment for the condition for at least 12 months after the start of your policy, the pre-existing medical condition will then be covered. Please see our Glossary for a definition of a pre-existing medical condition.

You also cannot claim for any unemployment that you were advised of or which happens within the Initial Exclusion Period. Please see our Glossary for a definition of the Initial Exclusion Period.

* The monthly cost is inclusive of Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) at the current rate of 6%. The cost is based on a customer aged 26-30 taking out our full accident, sickness and unemployment option with 30 day back to day one cover, 12 months benefit and no deferred premium period, protecting income of £755 per month.

IncomeShield is underwritten by Pinnacle Insurance plc.