What is a deferred period?

A deferred period could also be called a waiting period. It is the period of time that you need to be off work due to illness or accident before your Income protection policy begins to pay out. This time period is selected by each individual and is normally dictated by the sickness benefits that your employer provides.

Thus if your are Self Employed or receive no sickness benefits from your employer, then you will usually require a very short deferred period i.e. less than 1 month, however if you would receive 12 months sick pay from work, then we would set your deferred period to 12 months, as your policy would not pay out a benefit whilst you are receiving sick benefits from your employer. It is possible to take out day 1 cover — ie. policy will pay benefit after 1 day of sickness.

Policy Premiums are dictated also by the deferred period, as such the shorter the deferred period that you choose, the higher your premium will be in general terms as there is in increased likelihood of you making a claim.

For further information on the differences between a number of different Income Protection polices you need look no further than the trained advisors at E J Folkard Financial Services. We want to help to save you both time and money by searching the Permanent Health Insurance market on your behalf to find you the best policy to suit your individual circumstances. Why not call us now and get a quote, it costs nothing. We offer a truly independent UK whole of market service.

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