[Majestic]

Do any of you have a  insurance policy for if you go off sick ( who from ), are they worth it or a waste of money

[eddie d]

i have sickness and accident pollicies .got htem throuigh a broker .
they are very dear .

[Mr.G]

what kind of policies are they eddie?  I applied for Income Protection but they turned me down 

[Majestic]

Found this

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ASU/IncomeProtectCover.asp

[WavieDavie]

Yes - it's called a bank account, John!

The whole point about insurance is that you're betting against yourself in the genuine hope that you never have to claim. The actuaries have worked out that they'll be making a profit on your premiums - trust me on that one.

Why not "self-insure" - put an amount away each week/month into a high-interest account, ISA, savings policy, premium bonds even.

If you don't trust yourself not to dip in to this wee pot then maybe a policy is the way to go. There are different "delay periods" before claiming and so the premiums become more affordable. If you go for a sickness policy which you can only claim from after being off for four weeks it'll cost you less than one which kicks in after only one. But how many self employed are off for that length of time? Then you're into critical illness policies which are a completely different but similar kettle of fish.

Do you know any non-shark-like financial advisors you could talk to about this?

[windows_chepstow]

John,

Another idea but in a similiar vien would be to pay for your healthcare with a company like BUPA.

I know many companies give their staff free BUPA membership.

They do this so that if their staff are off sick, then BUPA will hopefully get them back to work sooner than what the NHS would.

I'm not a BUPA member, but I think I'll look into it.  I'd make the payments tax deductable!

[drakestar!]

payments are not tax deductable, found this out when i got investigated!

[matt]

i pay 10 quid a week for mine, full earnings for 12 months, then half after that

thats for a earning of 300 quid a week, which would be fine for me, then even at half of that we could get by

[vivaro 013]

which company is that you are insured with

[windows_chepstow]

payments are not tax deductable, found this out when i got investigated!

Did you argue the case?  Many companies give it to their employers for free.  You're self employed, so if you're sick and it's not life threatening the NHS isn't as good as BUPA.

BUPA may get you back to work quicker, since you don't get paid sick pay.

I think you could've argued a case and won.

[WavieDavie]

For a while I was registered with BUPA when my wife worked, and she was taxed on this as a benefit. I claimed on it twice, and adding up the cost of both operations against what I could have put aside from my self employment over the past 23 years comes to under £4 a week.

You won't get a price on the BUPA website because they want to send a rep to upgrade you, but good old Tesco would charge me £700 a year inc 5% discount for paying a year's premiums up front with a £100 excess. Now just think what I could do with that imaginary £500 a year difference if I'd been putting it away!

I'm ahead of the game, it might work the other way for you 

PS
BUPA - British United Provident Association - is a non-profit insurance company