What deferred periods are available?
A deferred period could also be called a waiting period. It is the period of time that you need to be off work due to illness or injury before your Income Protection policy begins to pay out. This time period is selected by each individual and is normally dictated by the sickness benefits that your employer provides. If you are self employed it may be dictated by how long you feel you could rely on your savings for. Thus if your are Self Employed or receive no sickness benefits from your employer, then you will usually require a very short deferred period i.e. less than 1 month. However if you are employed and receive 12 months sick pay through your employer, then your deferred period would be set to 12 months, so that it starts when your employer’s sick pay ends. Options of Day 1 cover, 1 week, 4, 8, 13, 26, 52 or 204 weeks are available. The deferred period you choose will affect the price of the policy. The shorter the deferred period, the higher your premium will be as there is in