How to protect your income

If illness or injury stopped your income tomorrow, how long could you pay the essentials?

Choosing cover is regulated advice, which Buzz Money Coach does not give.

What the state pays

If you're employed and too ill to work, Statutory Sick Pay is currently £123.25 a week (2026-27) — or 80% of your average weekly earnings if that's less — paid by your employer from your first full day off sick, for up to 28 weeks. That's roughly £534 a month. Compare it with your rent or mortgage.

Some employers pay more than the statutory minimum for a set period; find out how long. If you're self-employed, there is no SSP at all: no work generally means no income from day one (our self-employed money guide covers the wider picture).

£123.25Statutory Sick Pay per week in 2026-27

Work out your own gap

You can work out your exposure in about ten minutes. You need three figures: your essential monthly outgoings (your survival number), what would come in if you were off sick (sick pay, then SSP, then anything else), and how many months your savings could plug the difference.

Illustrative figures: the six-month test

Suppose your essential outgoings — mortgage, council tax, energy, food, transport, minimum debt payments — come to £1,900 a month. Your employer pays statutory only, so after the first weeks your income is SSP at about £534 a month. The gap is £1,366 a month. Six months off work therefore costs roughly £8,200 from savings just to stand still. A £5,000 emergency fund covers about three and a half months of that gap. And if the illness runs past 28 weeks, SSP ends. (Illustrative figures.)

The three types of cover

There are three main types:

Each answers a different question. ‘What replaces my salary if I'm off for two years?’ is income protection. ‘What pays the mortgage off if I die?’ is life cover. ‘What would a serious diagnosis cost us in one go?’ is where critical illness fits. The right mix depends on who relies on you, and a regulated adviser can recommend it.

Check what you already have

Before any adviser conversation, find out what cover you already hold:

Questions for a regulated adviser

  1. How much cover do I need, based on my survival number and existing sick pay — not a standard multiple of salary?
  2. What waiting period (the ‘deferred period’) makes sense given my employer's sick pay and my emergency fund? Longer waits mean cheaper premiums — how much cheaper, exactly?
  3. Does this income protection policy cover me for being unable to do my own job, or only any job at all? The difference decides whether a claim pays.
  4. How long would the policy pay out for — until retirement, or a capped one or two years — and what does each version cost?
  5. What exactly is excluded, and how do pre-existing conditions affect me?
  6. Does the cover keep pace with inflation, and what happens to it if I change jobs or go self-employed?
Regulated advice. Choosing and arranging protection — the type, the amount, the provider, the small print that decides whether a claim pays — is regulated financial advice, so the person recommending a policy is accountable for it. Coaching covers the step before: working out your gap and your questions. Buzz Money Coach does not give regulated advice. Where you need it, we say so and can introduce you to Equity & General, authorised and regulated by the FCA (No. 474163), through Buzz Money Ltd's introducer agreement. The introduction is optional. Our guide to finding a financial adviser explains how to choose one.

Protection and your emergency fund

A bigger emergency fund lets you choose a longer waiting period, which lowers premiums. The emergency fund covers short interruptions and protection covers longer ones.

Do the gap calculation today. The free Financial Freedom Score includes protection as one of the eight areas it scores.

Common questions

Is my emergency fund enough on its own?

They solve different lengths of problem. An emergency fund suits short interruptions — weeks or a few months — and for the waiting period at the start of any illness. But a serious illness can stop your income for years: our worked example shows a solid £5,000 fund covering under four months of a fairly ordinary gap. Income protection exists for precisely the tail your savings can't reach — it pays a replacement income for as long as the policy provides, which can be all the way to retirement.

I’m self-employed — what are my options?

You have no employer sick pay and no SSP, so your income stops the day you can't work. The same product types are open to you: income protection policies exist specifically for self-employed people, usually based on your trading profits, and an adviser will explain how insurers assess self-employed income and what evidence they'll want at claim time. Variable income and no sick pay are reasons to consider a bigger emergency fund, six months or more. Start with the sums, then take them to a regulated adviser.

Is income protection the same as PPI?

No. PPI — payment protection insurance — was cover bolted onto loans and cards to meet the repayments on that one debt, infamous because it was mis-sold on a massive scale to people who could never claim. Income protection is a standalone policy that replaces a proportion of your income — not a lender's repayments — if illness or injury stops you working, and it's individually underwritten, meaning the insurer assesses you properly at the start rather than arguing at claim time.

My employer gives six months’ full sick pay. Do I still need cover?

Possibly, and cover would cost less. Generous sick pay changes the shape of your gap rather than removing it: you're covered for six months, and then, if the illness is the serious kind that runs longer, you drop to SSP and eventually to nothing. A policy with a six-month deferred period starts paying when your employer stops and costs less than day-one cover; a regulated adviser can tell you whether it suits you. One more check: your sick pay and any death-in-service benefit vanish if you change jobs, so revisit the sums whenever you move.

Does critical illness cover pay out for any serious illness?

No. Critical illness policies pay a lump sum only for the specific conditions listed in the policy, often at defined severities, and the lists vary meaningfully between insurers and between old and new policies. Most cover a core set such as cancer, heart attack, stroke and multiple sclerosis, but many exclude or tightly define conditions like back pain or mental ill health that are common causes of long-term absence. A condition that devastates your working life but isn't on the list, or doesn't meet the definition, doesn't pay. That is why comparing on premium alone is a mistake, and why the definitions — not just the price — are a conversation for a regulated adviser.

Related reads

How to build an emergency fund — three to six months of expenses, and how to build it from nothing.
The big money decisions — homes, pensions and protection.
Wills and financial admin — a will, power of attorney and beneficiary nominations.
Getting the right help — coach, adviser or broker: who does what, what it costs, and when you need each.

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