Why Zurich Income Protection?

Zurich Income Protection pays a monthly benefit if your customer can't work due to illness or injury and they experience a loss of income. We offer a comprehensive yet simple product designed to give your customers more certainty and clarity at the point of claim.

We offer more than just financial support. We work with external rehabilitation partners and our in-house team of rehabilitation specialists to help them recover and return to work.

Your customers can choose a policy that pays until the end of the policy term or for up to two years for each claim. They can also upgrade to Income Protection Enhanced or add other optional benefits.

Income Protection

Helps provide financial support if your customer cannot work due to illness or injury and they experience a loss of income.

Eligibility:

Minimum premium £5 a month or £50 a year
Maximum monthly benefit we’ll cover is 65% of the first £60,000 of your customer’s gross income plus up to 45% of the remainder, subject to a maximum of £20,000 per month
Minimum age at entry 18
Maximum age at entry 59
Maximum age at expiry 69
Minimum term 5 years
Maximum term 52 years
Must be employed or self-employed when the policy starts and working at least 16 hours a week
Must be registered with a UK General Practitioner for at least two years
UK resident

Included as standard:

Maximum Benefit Guarantee
Minimum Benefit Guarantee

Standard guarantee of £1,500
Enhanced guarantee of £3,000 for doctors, surgeons and dentists

Return to Work Package
Medical Professions Sick Pay Guarantee
Sabbatical Cover
Waiver of Premium

Early claim notification
Standard waiver

Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Benefit
Own Occupation Guarantee
House Person Benefit
Career break (temporary benefit reduction)

Additional benefits:

(added at extra cost)

Income Protection Enhanced
(which includes)

Trauma Benefit
Hospital Stay Benefit
Funeral Benefit

Multi-Fracture Cover
Zurich Accelerate

Maximum Benefit Guarantee

If there's a difference of 10% or less between the maximum amount we can pay based on your customer's income when they claim and their monthly benefit, we'll ignore the difference and pay the full monthly benefit.

Minimum Benefit Guarantee

If your customer doesn’t qualify for the Maximum Benefit Guarantee we’ll still guarantee a minimum income of either £1,500 or their monthly benefit, if lower. The guarantee of £1,500 is increased to £3,000 for doctors, surgeons and dentists.

Return to Work Package

Phased return
If your customer returns to work on a lower income - for example, due to only being able to work reduced hours, we’ll continue to pay them a percentage of the benefit we were paying them immediately before they returned to work.
Different occupation 
If your customer starts a new lower paid job, we’ll also top up their earnings.
Linked claims 
After a claim has ended, if your customer goes off work again for the same or a connected reason within a 12 month period, a new deferred period won’t apply (restrictions apply if your customer has a limited term benefit period policy).

Medical Professions Sick Pay Guarantee

If a 52-week deferred period is chosen, we’ll match the sick pay arrangements of doctors, surgeons, dentists, nurses and midwives employed by the NHS or where their employer has adopted the NHS sick pay structure.

Sabbatical Cover

Your customers can take sabbatical leave for up to 12 months at a time without it affecting their cover. As long as they continue to pay their premiums, if they become ill or injured during their sabbatical, we’ll assess their claim against their pre-sabbatical job and income.

Waiver of Premium

Early claim notification 
As soon as your customer lets us know they’re ill or injured, we can suspend their premiums immediately if they agree to, and follow the steps recommended by their claims assessor.
Standard wavier of premium
If they don’t agree to the steps we recommend, we’ll suspend their premium 13 weeks from the date they became ill or injured, or at the end of their deferred period, whichever comes first.

Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Benefit

If your customer takes time off to be with their new baby, and they become ill or injured during the next 12 months, we’ll cover them as though they’re still working.

Own Occupation Guarantee

If your customer becomes unable to work due to illness or injury between jobs, and they left their last job less than three months ago, we’ll assess their claim based on their previous job and income.

House Person Benefit

If your customer becomes ill or injured and they haven’t done any paid work in the last three months, we can still consider claims under House Person Benefit. We'll pay the lower of £1,500 or the monthly benefit if they can't do at least three out of six specified activities of daily living.

Career break

Allows your customers to reduce their monthly benefit temporarily to as low as £250 per month for up to 12 months.

Additional benefits that can be added to the policy at an extra cost.

Multi-Fracture Cover

Pays up to £6,000 if your customer breaks a bone, dislocates a joint, ruptures their Achilles tendon or tears a cruciate ligament in their knee.

Find out more on the Multi-Fracture Cover page.

Zurich Accelerate

A range of services offering fast access and support for your customers and their children for investigations, diagnosis and international treatment for cancer, cardiovascular and neurological conditions.

Find out more on the Accelerate page

Income Protection Enhanced

Trauma Benefit
If your customer experiences one of the following life changing conditions, we’ll pay £25,000.

Blindness
Brain injury
Loss of hand or foot
Loss of speech
Paralysis of limb
Total and permanent loss of ability to live independently

Hospital stay Benefit
If your customer is in hospital for seven consecutive nights, we’ll pay £150 for the seventh, and each consecutive night up to a maximum of 90 nights. Payable both during the deferred period, and after it ends.
Funeral Benefit
If your customer dies we'll pay £10,000.

Milestone benefit

We know a lot can happen between the day your customer takes out their policy and the day they need to make a claim. When these significant events occur, your customer can use the milestone benefit feature on their policy to increase their monthly benefit. They won't have to answer any health questions, but their premiums will change.

Mortgage

Take out a mortgage or increase the mortgage they already have

Marriage

Get married or enter a civil partnership

Separation

Divorce, separate or dissolve a civil partnership

Becoming a parent

Starting a family

Rent increase

Have an increase in their rental payments

Payrise

Get a pay rise of 10% or more

The maximum increase your customer can make to their monthly benefit is the lower of half of their original monthly benefit or £833 a month.

In addition to this, they can increase their monthly benefit by up to £1,666 a month if they’ve had an increase in salary of more than 20% since the start date of their policy. They can only do this once during their policy.

This benefit must be used within 90 days of the significant life event and can only be used if your customer is 54 years old or younger.