With words like “Armageddon” and financial “meltdown” becoming widely used in the media, 2008 is definitely spiralling down towards recession.

Views of the experts differ, however the generally accepted wisdom is that this one could be long and deep, with thousands of companies going to the wall, as well as hundreds of thousands of redundancies.

Even in the good times, when the economy was booming, redundancies still happen, with regularity, however certain sectors, like banking, were somewhat immune; well, not now.

Losing your job is bad, losing your home is worse. The upheaval, the stigma and of course the stain of your credit file for at least six years. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

Well there is some thing that you can do, and unless you have a bucket load of cash behind you, this maybe the only way to save your home if you lose your income. Oh, and if you thought the state will help you, think again. Income support for mortgages will only pay the interest on your loan, after the first nine months. By then, you will be long gone, by the time the envelope drops on the mat!

MPPI is the financial umbrella that you need.

Should you have the misfortune to be made unemployed through no fault of your own mortgage unemployment insurance (MPPI) will start to pay a monthly benefit to cover your mortgage and a contribution to other costs associated with running a house. What’s more, under the current HMRC rules, the benefit is tax free.

By having one of these mortgage insurance policies in payment, you will be able to service your mortgage, avoid arrears; keep your credit file straight and other lines of credit open.

Now with the financial worries taken care of, you would be able to concentrate on finding another job or maybe work on a business plan for self employment.

These MPPI policies give you a decent breathing space, which should allow you to find a job or set up a business; typically you will receive benefits for 12 months, or when you find new employment, or start trading (whichever is the sooner). Often, there is a clause that states that they will not pay out during the first 90 days of cover. This is to make sure that they are not being selected against i.e. you knew that you were going to be made redundant.

The cover is surprisingly affordable, even in today’s deteriorating job market. However, a word of caution, the Banks offer this kind of cover at a grossly inflated prices, don’t do it. The banks helped get us into this mess, don’t help them out of it!!

When choosing your mortgage payment protection insurance, as with any payment insurance policy, read the key facts very carefully, especially for any exclusion’s.

None of us really likes buying insurance, we are made to buy car insurance and home insurance but most others insurances are optional.

The market place for income payment protection insurance is incredibly competitive now with many policies from different providers to choose from. This competition drives up the quality of the cover and also drives down the cost which benefits us all.

Income payment protection insurance will provide cover against accident, sickness or unemployment.

If you have received a reduction in your mortgage payments recently why not put this extra money towards an income protection policy? You will not be increasing your outgoings but will have secured a valuable insurance benefit in the event that accident, sickness or redundancy strikes. This valuable cover will provide peace of mind as the insurance policy will be there to provide a regular income should the worst happen.

If you have a mortgage, an alternative to income payment protection insurance is mortgage repayment insurance. This can cover your mortgage payments up to a maximum of £3000 per month.

Income payment protection insurance is available from a number of different insurance providers but the basic make up of an income payment protection insurance policy is generally the same.

These income payment protection insurance policies provide cover against:

• Accident
• Sickness
• Unemployment

They will all have a maximum amount of cover you can insure for. This is typically around £1000 per month but can be more and is also related to earnings. In the event of a claim, most income payment protection insurance policies will payout for a maximum of 12 months. After this time the policy will make no further payments.

One important feature to look out for is back to day one cover. This means that you will be gaining insurance payments from the first day of your claim.

Income protection insurance policies are designed to insure your regular earnings against accident, sickness and unemployment. This also means that you do not need to have a mortgage or loan to buy income payment protection insurance.