At Pinnacle Life we classify jobs using an industry-standard provided by our underwriters. If the level of risk is considered high, for example if your occupation is considered hazardous, it will be assessed and this may affect your eligibility or the level of your premiums. However, most occupations can be covered by Pinnacle Life Income Protection Insurance.
As an example, Mary works as a nurse and applied for Income Protection. Because her occupation falls into a high-risk category, her premiums will be higher than her friend Bob who is a receptionist.
However, Bob’s cousin Harry is an acrobat in a travelling circus and, due to the risks involved on the flying trapeze, he would not be eligible for Income Protection.
Can I get it if I'm self-employed?
Making sure that you have protection if you can’t work if you are ill or injured is particularly important if you’re self-employed as you are likely to have less of a safety net then employees, with their statutory access to sick and annual leave.
Luckily if you’re self-employed you can get income protection cover, and the conditions will depend on the insurance company you are dealing with. With Pinnacle Life if you’re self-employed you can get cover if you’ve been averaging working at least 30 hours per week over a two year period.
When you come to claim, we’ll first ask for your last IRD return showing your gross taxable annual income. We’d normally expect that it would show the amount you’ve earned directly from your usual self-employed occupation. This will then form the basis of the amount payable under your claim, being either 60% or 75% of your average monthly income after tax (depending on what you choose when you took out your policy).
If you are unable to work due to an injury, your income protection payments will be adjusted to reflect any payment that might be made by ACC to you as well. But remember that for well over 90% of cases where people are unable to work the cause is illness not injury, so don’t just count on ACC to look after if anything untoward happens.
Apply now and you could be covered in just 10 minutes.
