Mamucium

I know. . .  Compared to the impending General Election and the increasingly fraught end to the Premier League season, this is hardly in a similar league. However, I can honestly say with hindsight that I wish I’d have known more about this and had abetter understanding of relative risk as a younger man. Let this be a salutary lesson to you all. . .

For those of you who are sat there thinking, “What is this Income Protection thingy?”, I would say it’s probably better to go here first, then come back and carry on reading. For everyone else, let’s get started.

For lots of reasons I am a bit of an ‘emotional retard’. Having my father pass away when I was eleven effectively removed both the (relative) financial security of my family and my only male role model. Both were pretty tough to do without and this came back to bit me in the arse in my Twenties.

Effectively due to a series of events, much of which were within my control and I had chosen to ignore, I ended up in a rather invidious position at work. I shall spare you the precise details that had led to my predicament but, suffice to say, I was screwed.

In summary, I needed to work to keep the money coming in to keep my now deep depression away through a combination of commercialism and booze. However, just being at work was becoming a Herculean challenge. Something was always going to break. In the end, it was my head that broke first.

This, my friends, is where the bit about me loving Income Protection comes in. The sad thing is, I love it now knowing the value it could’ve had to me rather than the benefit it was as at this time I did not have a policy.

I was in some ways very, very lucky. I was working at the time for an employer with a very generous sickpay policy and I was entitled to six months full pay. The ugly truth was though that I was in a bad way. I was on a very high dose of a charming little drug known as Sertraline. If you would like to know more about these drugs and their recent record, I can highly recommend spending some time over on the Bad Science site as authored by Ben Goldacre. Surprisingly I wasn’t feeling much better (only funny if you’ve examined the earlier links) and I was rapidly approaching the end of my full sick pay. My debt pile meant going on half pay would spell my doom. My broken mind meant that going back to work would also spell my doom. I knew that I needed help and approached the NHS for additional services. This would eventually turn out to be one of the smartest things I have done to date as counselling would eventually be the answer. However, that was five months and a whole waiting list away yet.

So, what did I end up doing for the next five months? How did I get out of this predicament? The truth is, I didn’t. I took a demotion and went back to work in a diminished capacity but it wasn’t enough. The years of trying to spend myself happy had finally come home to roost and I ended up effectively ending my financial freedom by moving back home and entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement – something that I am tied to even now. In addition, being back at work was a really bad idea no matter how financially necessary it was. The drugs were messing me up. I slept for hours a day but rarely restfully. I had no desire or passion for human interaction. I became more withdrawn and if anything less human. Alright I was no longer in the depths of depression but this zombie like “inbetween” state was, if anything, worse. At least when you’re upset you feel something. I felt nothing. It was weird. My reputation and career path with my former employer was terminally damaged.

At this point you’re probably hoping that I plan on getting to the point some time this week. Fortunately, that point has been reached! With a suitable Income Protection policy I would’ve been infinitely better off both then and now. Let me explain why.

How does Income Protection fix this mess?

• It pays you money when you can’t work.

Apologies if this over-simplifies the matter but this is exactly what Income Protection is designed to do. In particular, plans with an “own occupation” definition mean that you only have to demonstrate that you are unable to fulfil the material duties of your own job in order to trigger a valid claim. I could’ve set up a plan to start paying out after six months to coincide with the end of my company sick pay. This would’ve given me the huge advantage of concentrating on getting better, rather than trying to juggle my health with the needs of my employer and my creditors. I simply cannot overstate how much of a difference this would’ve made.

• It doesn’t matter what’s keeping you off work.

Some of you may be sat there right now with a rather smug grin, stroking your ASU plan or your Critical Illness plan and thinking – “I’m alright jack.” I’m afraid not. The two most common claims made against Income Protection policies are for ‘Mental / Nervous Function Disorders’ or ‘Musculo-Skeletal’ problems. Neither of which are covered by either of the two aforementioned types of cover. Income Protection is unique and should not be confused with any other type of plan.

• If you try to do the right thing and it doesn’t work out – you’re still covered.

Many Income Protection plans come with very handy features like Relapse Benefit or Proportionate Benefit. When you are recovering from an illness like depression, one of the things you strive for is a return to normality. In fact, there are many positive health benefits of being able to resume a normal life. The renewal of your status as an employed person can do wonders for your self esteem. As a consequence, it’s not unusual for people to rush their return to work in a quest to reinstate normality. Sometimes, this works out fine. Other times, you end up worse as a consequence. What Relapse Benefit does is resume your payment straight away if you end up off work again with the same problem. This can be one of the areas in which you can find the real value of a policy. Some may only ‘link’ your time off work if you’re off again within six months. Others within a year. Some may restrict the number of successive claims you can make. Other policies will have no such restriction.

Equally in the quest to resume a normal life, many people will look to get back to work doing something. It may be that they phase their return over a period of time and build back up to full time hours. It may be that (like me) people go back to work in a diminished capacity and therefore with a reduced earnings capacity. Proportionate benefit makes a payment to you in these circumstances to effectively “top you up” to whatever the maximum you could claim for was, making sure that you are no worse off for going back to work.

• It buys you time to sort yourself out.

What this all boils down to is time and your own health. In the end, once I had the chance to attend counselling, some eleven months or so after I first had time off work with depression, I was really properly ready to return to work. Sadly I had been forced through my own circumstances to try and maintain gainful employment throughout this period and the end result was that I had to leave the company that I had worked for those last eight years. I was very lucky to find another good employer and I have since gone on to re-establish my career and more importantly my life on a much sounder footing. Many in my situation don’t get that lucky. With Income Protection, I would’ve had the piece of mind of knowing that, if necessary until my retirement age, that money would continue to come in and I could concentrate on nothing other than getting better.

This all sounds rather fabulous and necessary. Where do I get one of these?

Fortunately for you, Income Protection is widely available in the UK. However, like lots of things that are ‘widely available’ there are subtle differences between one product and another. With anything like this, I would always recommend seeking impartial Financial Advice. If you already have a relationship with a Financial Adviser, make contact with them and ask them about Income Protection. If not, don’t worry. There’s more of them around than you would think and it’s very easy to get hold of one. As a starter, you could head over here and see how many are operating in your area right now.

What I would urge you to do though is take action. Whilst my story is potentially avoidable, it may surprise you how many people are suffering right now. Mind estimate 1 in 10 adults will suffer with long term depression at some stage in their adult life. With the benefit of hindsight I can truly now say that I would much rather have had Income Protection and not needed it, than need it like I did and not have it.