The cost of an income protection UK plan depends on:
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Width of cover
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How much replacement income you want to receive.
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How many months/weeks/days before payment starts
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How many months the policy pays out for
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Extra options bought
Then there are factors personal to you, which affect the priceof an income protection UK plan;
- Occupation; a manual job will be more of a risk than an office or shop worker
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Health history ;of you, and sometimes of your family too
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Smoking; smokers tend to pay more
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Retirement age; the older you are when you plan to retire, the higher the premium
Not all income protection insurance providers have the same views on the above factors.
Sex and income protection
Although there are sex discrimination laws, these do not apply to insurance pricing. EU attempts to seek to make it illegal to charge separate prices for men and women, have failed for the time being.
Women purchasing income protection insurance in the UK can find that they pay up to twice the price as a man with exactly the same age, occupation, medical history etc. Insurance underwriters tend to be male and their argument is that women claim more.
The key argument put forward is that women risk breast cancer, pregnancy and all its effects, and other " female " problems.
The rights and wrongs of this attitude are for debate elsewhere, but with the often-substantial difference in price offered; it is well worth shopping around.
