Many employers will have insurance to cover this sort of disaster. It is funny isn’t that it is only when a disaster hits that people realise that the insurance is worth paying.
I strongly advise all my young staff to make the investment into income protection insurance. The earlier the better. Income protection insurance covers illness. We all know that if an employee is harmed in an accident then ACC will cover significant amounts of lost income. What happens, however, if an employee suffers from a nervous breakdown, long term chronic illness, cancer – realistically without insurance there is a sickness benefit.
I say the earlier the better because it is too late to get income protection insurance, obviously, once you have shown signs of a certain illness. If you get cover from the very beginning when you are younger and likely healthier this will make it easier to get cover compared to when you are older and likely less healthy.
Whilst I appreciate that many people on low incomes will not be able to afford income protection insurance it seems quite ridiculous to me that those on relatively high incomes would not have such insurance particularly when they have families. If you are ill and cannot work your employer is not obliged to hold open your job indefinitely. For people that become ill and become unable to work for significant periods of time (of which I see many) often the only shining light for them is that they have income protection insurance.
Finally whilst I am being particularly positive I notice it is Will month again. Again this is a “no brainer”. Everyone should have an up to date Will. There is no point in making a Will when you are 20 and thinking that you would wish to make the same decisions as to who gets what when you are 50. No one likes to think about your own death (least of all smokers and pie eaters) but it is an obligation which we should all meet to save our loved ones additional upset and costs upon our death.
