Looking for advice on having to go on income protection.

D

daveclarke5

New Member
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6
I am out of work at the moment due to mental health issues, I have my own income protection policy in plsce, I’m just trying to plan ahead should I end up out of work for a period of time, if I did have to apply to use my income protection policy is there any potential reason why they wouldn’t pay me out? And if I did need to claim off it for a period of time do they make it difficult to do this? My broker advised me to take it out and I never really thought I would have to use it so never gave it much thought until now
 
daveclarke5 said:
I’m just trying to plan ahead should I end up out of work for a period of time, if I did have to apply to use my income protection policy is there any potential reason why they wouldn’t pay me out?
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Sorry to hear this and I hope you make a recovery.

It’s important that all of this is documented very carefully from a medical perspective. I’m not an expert but I would imagine that a diagnosis of mental health issues leaving you completely unfit for work would need to come from a psychiatrist.

Also, you will need to demonstrate that your condition didn’t pre-date the start of the policy
 
One of the Income protection providers published their claims stats last week and reasons for claims were:

Cancer 37% Musculo-skeletal 19% Mental Health 15% Neurological 10% Heart 7% Respiratory/Circulatory 1% Other 12%

Age profile of claimants :

Up to 40 23% 41-50 33% 51-60 37% Over 60 7%
 
daveclarke5 said:
Thanks for coming back to my query, would the details from my GP not suffice?
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I have no direct experience.

But I highly doubt that an insurer would commit to a payout of hundreds of thousands of euros (and that's a typical lifetime claim on one of these policies) without a specialist's opinion. Possibly their own specialist as well to make an independent assessment of you.
 
daveclarke5 said:
Thanks for coming back to my query, would the details from my GP not suffice?
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Sorry to hear of your mental health issues. As mental health issues are more difficult for an insurance company to independently confirm than, say a physical injury, it is likely that they will require a report from a consultant in the mental health area verifying that you are unable to work.
 
Your post is a bit unclear.
Are you asking about taking out an income protection policy?
Or about claiming on such a policy that is already in effect?
What sort of specific information are you looking for?
 
Claiming on a policy which is in place. I am out sick at the moment and may need to utilise a policy I have in place, I’m just wondering if anyone has any experience in having to claim on a policy, do the insurance company make it difficult to make the claim and then when you are claiming do they hound you until you are fit to go back to work or do they leave you alone to get better.
 
From some very limited experience with Aviva, they appear to follow the policy quite accurately and don't make it excessively difficult to obtain. My main recommendation would be to start the claim sooner rather than later as it can take time for all the paperwork to be processed(2-3 mths). Not because of specific delays with Aviva, more due to navigating GPs & consultants with form filling etc.
 
out of work at the moment due to mental health issues, I have my own income protection policy in plsce
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I won't pretend to be an expert in this field; so this is from my / others experience.

1. You are going to need some fairly hefty diagnoses / consultant reports.

Mental health is not as straightforward to establish as (say) cancer. That's not to say its not serious, just harder to get over the line.

2. Check your policy and find out what the limits are. E.g. does it say, unable to do your regular work or *any* work.

3. Check what time limit is on your policy. Will it cease after x number of years or is it indefinite.
 
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