Serious Illness Cover

[Omega]

If you have salary protection at your job, does it make sense to pay extra for SIC? If your company pays you when you're sick and you have a SIC policy, can the insurer then turn around and say that you're not actually out-of-pocket and refuse to pay out?

 

[RS2K]

No. The two are unrelated.

PHI/Income continuance/Salary protection is insurance against loss of income from your job/trade.

S.I. cover is protection against a "dread" event, mainly cancers and heart problems.

If you have good PHI and adequate health insurance (VHI/BUPA/VIVAS) additional SI cover (which won't qualify for tax relief*) might not be required.

*I've seen some SI cover in Occ. pension schemes although it's Revenue limited.

 

[POBHD28]

If you have good PHI and adequate health insurance (VHI/BUPA/VIVAS) additional SI cover (which won't qualify for tax relief*) might not be required.

I've been coming to that conclusion myself. PHI and SIC are both pretty expensive forms of insurance. Given a reasonable PHI / VHI combination, I'm not sure that additional SIC is worth the extra expense. I'm thinking the cash that would go into SIC might be better employed going into pension AVCs or accelerated mortgage repayments.

I'd be curious if anyone can offer good reasons why one would hold all three of PHI, SIC and Health insurance.