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People insure their car the week they buy it. They insure their phone within days. The income that pays for both of those things is often left completely uninsured for years. Over a third of UK adults (36%) currently hold no personal protection at all, according to Drewberry’s 2025 Individual Protection Survey. No life cover, no income protection, no critical illness cover.
Protection insurers paid a combined £7.84 billion in claims in 2025. That works out to over £20 million a day, according to the Association of British Insurers and Group Risk Development. That figure covers life insurance, critical illness cover, and income protection. It is not a marketing number. It is money paid directly to bereaved families, people dealing with serious illness, and people who could not work because of injury.
| Cover | What it actually does | Who tends to need it most |
|---|---|---|
| Life Insurance | Pays a lump sum on death, usually matched to a mortgage or income need. | Anyone with a mortgage, a partner, or dependants. |
| Critical Illness Cover | Pays a tax-free lump sum on diagnosis of a specified serious illness. | Anyone who could not absorb months of reduced income during treatment. |
| Income Protection | Pays a monthly income if illness or injury stops you working. | The self-employed in particular, who have no statutory sick pay. |
| Buildings Insurance | Covers the structure of your home against fire, flood, storm and subsidence. | Every homeowner, usually required by the mortgage lender. |
| Contents Insurance | Covers belongings inside the property against theft, fire and accidental damage if added. | Homeowners and renters alike. |
| Landlord Insurance | Covers a let property's structure, contents, liability and lost rent. | Anyone letting a property, whether by design or accident. |
| Whole of Life Insurance | Covers you for life, often used specifically for inheritance tax planning. | Estates likely to exceed the frozen nil-rate bands. |
Most people who come to us are not looking for a lecture on insurance. They want to know whether a gap in their cover is about to cost them. Here are four situations we see every week.
Your lender checked your income to confirm you could afford the mortgage. Nobody checked what would happen to that payment if your income stopped. Statutory Sick Pay is £118.75 a week for up to 28 weeks. It does not apply to the self-employed at all. That amount does not come close to covering most London mortgage payments for a single month, and for most people, it is the only safety net in place.
The sum assured matched your mortgage eight years ago. Your mortgage is probably bigger now, and your family may have grown. A policy that felt right at the time can leave a six-figure gap between what it pays out and what your family actually needs. Most people only find that out when it is too late to fix it.
The average income protection claim lasts 5.6 years, according to ABI data. A third of claims are for musculoskeletal conditions, back problems, and joint injuries, rather than the dramatic diagnoses people often picture. If your savings would run out in month four, the gap between what you think is protecting you and what actually is protecting you is real and can be fixed before something happens.
A standard homeowner’s buildings policy does not become a landlord policy when a tenant moves in. If you make a claim after a tenant is in situ and you never told your insurer about the letting, the policy is likely to be void from the date the tenancy began. Not reduced. Void. No payout, and personal liability for everything that follows.
Speak to an adviser to discuss your circumstances and find out how we can help.
FCA research published in early 2026 found that most people who take out protection insurance are broadly well served by the market. Claims are paid, cover is available, and pricing has remained fairly stable. The gap is not a bad product. It is that most people are never prompted to think about it until something has already gone wrong. Every page below deals with one part of that gap directly, using real UK figures rather than generic reassurance.
If you have a mortgage, start with Life Insurance and Buildings Insurance. A lender will usually require or strongly expect both. If you are self-employed, Income Protection is the page to read first because statutory sick pay does not apply to you at all. If you own a property you let out, go straight to Landlord Insurance. A standard home policy will not cover you the moment a tenant moves in.
Clear,honest answers to the questions we hear most from clients and introducers.
Your lender checked your income to lend you the money. Nobody required you to protect it. Statutory Sick Pay covers employees for 28 weeks and does not apply to the self-employed at all. An income protection policy fills the gap between what you earn and what you receive if illness or injury takes you out of work. It is the policy most people wish they had sorted at the same time as the mortgage.
The average income protection claim lasts 5.6 years, according to ABI data. A third of claims are for musculoskeletal conditions, back problems, and joint injuries, rather than dramatic diagnoses. If your savings would run out by month four, the gap between what you think is protecting you and what actually is protecting you is real and fixable now.
A diagnosis in someone close to you often prompts the question: what would happen to us? The answer depends entirely on what cover is currently in place. A broker can review your existing policies, identify the gaps, and give you a clear picture of what you actually need rather than what a comparison site defaulted you towards.
Protection insurance generally gets more expensive as you get older and can become harder to arrange if your health changes. The premium you were quoted last year is likely to be lower than the one you are quoted next year. There is no benefit to waiting and there can be a specific financial cost to doing so.
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