Submitted by: Dennis Haggerty

John F. Kennedy famously said ‘The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining’. His point, of course, was that the sun will not be shining forever, and it is important during the good times to make preparations for the stormier times which may be over the horizon.

There is an obvious relationship between this quote and unemployment insurance. If you are employed in a good job with a steady income which covers all the bills and pays your mortgage, now is the time to make provisions to enable you to continue providing for your family in the event of losing your job.

You may be thinking to yourself ‘I’ll just find myself another job!’, and yes, ultimately that has to be your primary focus once you become unemployed. However, it is not always easy to find work immediately, particularly in the midst of a worldwide recession. If you have the right connections and know how to sell yourself to employers, you will more than likely find a new job sooner or later, but what about in the meantime?

If you have accumulated significant savings in the bank over the years, then this is likely to ease the financial pressure that unemployment places on you. Unfortunately, the percentage of the population who are able to call upon such a generous pot of savings in the event of a redundancy is relatively small. According to recent statistics, fewer than 50% of households have sufficient savings to cover even three months worth of expenses.

For those of us without a large amount of savings, the only available source of income during a period of unemployment is state benefits. According to insurers, the average time people spend unemployed between jobs is about eight months. That’s a very long time to survive and cover costs with only the standard state benefits for income. The current standard Job Seekers Allowance rate is 51.85 for those aged 16-24, and 61.45 for those aged 25 and over. If you have a family and a mortgage to look after, there is no way these meagre benefits will come close to covering your expenses.

Many people simply do not realise how precarious their financial situation really is. If the worst should happen and you face an extended period of unemployment, you may find your only option is to get into serious debt. This will ease the burden in the short term, but you will likely be left with crippling internet payments potentially running into thousands of pounds.

The easy, painless way to avoid this disaster scenario is to purchase an unemployment insurance plan now, ‘while the sun is shining’.

With unemployment cover (also known as income protection insurance or redundancy cover), you will normally make a set payment into a policy each month, and should redundancy occur, you can then apply to make a claim on the policy. The rate of payments and the time at which you receive them depends on the type of policy you purchase, and you will find there are a variety of options enabling you to tailor your policy to your specific needs and circumstances.

Unemployment insurance can cost as little as just 5-10 a week, which is about the same as a gym membership. Claimants on average receive around 1000 a month, and your policy should provide enough to cover your bills, mortgage and other household expenses. Claimants can also benefit from free assistance to help them get back into employment again quickly, including advice on CVs, job searching and interviews.

In summary , unemployment cover can be vitally important to safeguard your family’s financial stability, even though you hopefully will never need to use it. Unless you already have a significant amount of money stashed away in savings, unemployment insurance really is the only option to cushion the blow of redundancy and help you through the difficult transition period before you find a new job.

About the Author: iprotect Insurance is a leading provider of unemployment insurance. Visit

iprotectinsurance.co.uk/

for more infomation on income protection in the event of redundancy.

Source:

isnare.com

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