Personal Accident and Sickness Insurance - Permanent Health Insurance was originally introduced to deal with the restrictive payout limits on the above type of cover. Personal Accident and Sickness Insurance Policies (commonly known as General Accident Insurance) usually have a time limit for payouts not exceeding 104 weeks.   General Accident Insurance is usually sold in units with the price being directly linked to the type of work and perhaps sports or pastimes entered in to by the individual. Extreme example as are Office Workers who will usually be in the lowest rated category and Deep Sea Fisherman who will almost certainly be in the highest.  Benefits vary from insurer to insurer but usually a table of benefits is produced each called a unit. In theory you could by as many units as you liked but mostly insurers will want to restrict you to a proportion of your income usually set at 75%.
 

General Accident Insurance cover is most commonly used to protect a mortgage, this type of cover is sometimes known as mortgage Payment Protection Insurance as is sold via a variety of product providers.   Nowadays, the difference in pricing between straight Accident & Sickness Insurance and Accident, sickness & Unemployment Insurance is getting smaller all the time. You may be lucky enough to have received a policy from your employer but remember, the accident & sickness benefit will cease if you loose your job.

When considering Insurance, it is always best to seek professional advice but we can inform you that some of the key terms that you may encounter are as follows;

Initial Exclusion Period - An 'Initial Exclusion Period' is the period from the start of the payment protection insurance policy during which the policy will not be effective should your unemployment be announced - even if the actual date of the loss of employment is at a later date. Basically, this exclusion is used by insurers to stop people taking out insurance policies when they know that their continued employment may be in jeopardy.

Policy Excess or deferred period - The policy excess or deferred period is the period from the time when an insurance claim commences to the time benefits are started to be paid. It is worth noting that the commencement date is not the date that employment is lost, it is the date on which you become eligible to receive benefits. If, for instance, you are paid 3 months 'cash in lieu' the commencement date would begin 3 months after the termination of your contract. If you require to receive wider cover then a policy called back to day one is usually available.
 

Back to Day One - Back to day one is equivalent to a 'zero excess or deferred period. It means that, providing you have been off work for a certain length of time, your claims will be paid commencing on the first day that you were eligible to claim.

Benefit Period - the benefit period is the length of time for which the benefit is paid under the payment protection policy. Most policies available will cover you for 12 months but in some circumstances, it is possible to increase cover to 24 months.