Freelancers and other self-employed people are being urged to invest in a financial safety net to protect their families in case they cannot work.
The call has been made by Scottish Provident after the results of its survey discovered that 58% of people in Britain have no protection in place.
Of these, 31% said that their standard of living would be severely curtailed if the main household breadwinner was unable to work over a prolonged period. Scottish Provident also pointed out that while 35% of adults have life insurance, only 13% have taken out critical illness insurance and only 9% have income protection cover.
The main reason for not taking out protection is the cost, according to 39% of the survey’s respondents. This result shows that many contractors do not understand the range and cost of available products, the insurer said.
Britons are taking a major risk with their own livelihood and that of their families, the head of marketing at Scottish Provident said.
However, maybe we are becoming more aware of the benefits that come from insurance products. A separate piece of research from Unbiased.co.uk showed an increase of 39% in the number of online searches for products such as critical illness cover and life insurance in the first 8 months of the year.
Income protection cover is classed as the hardest product to sell, according to Ben Heffer from Defaqto. This is mainly because a lot of individuals believe they will never require it, but in the aftermath of the recession, people should realise that redundancy can happen to anyone.
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