Who needs income protection?

You might think you don't need an income protection policy. You don't have any children; you're not married; you've got a tidy income, a healthy pension and a nice lump sum set aside. Why bother paying out to cover yourself for illness or disability? Maybe you're right. If everything goes to plan, you'll retire a little early and start to really enjoy life.

When the going is good, it can be difficult to convince yourself of the need to shell out extra money on any type of insurance, and paying money to protect yourself against losing your job or being unable to work due to accident or sickness is no different.

Then again, you could be struck down with something tomorrow, something that would stop you from ever going to work again. You won't necessarily get that much from the government, certainly not enough to keep you in the style to which you're accustomed. That cash pile you're sitting on could dwindle away fairly quickly if something really bad happened.

Here are some facts that add weight to the argument that this type of protection is an important and useful guard against unfortunate eventualities:

• 90 families a day had their homes repossessed in 2000. The majority due to the financial problems associated with unemployment.
• One in three people aged between 25-34 have experienced unemployment for a period in excess of one month.
• Almost one in five working age households (3.4 million) have someone who is currently unemployed.
• Today in Britain there are almost 1,000,000 persons who are registered as unemployed.
• Every day 500 people in the UK become unemployed.
• 60% of unemployed men and 45% of unemployed women will be out of work for six months or more.
• Every adult in Britain is five times more likely to suffer a serious disability than die before the age of 60.
• Today in Britain, 2,900 people will start claiming state disability benefits.
• 1,800,000 people in Britain are already disabled and have been unable to work for 12 months or more.