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.