Two Come Along At Once

Blimey, two posts in one day....

I saw this come in on an email; today and felt it was worth publicising:

Research commissioned by Scottish Provident and carried out by Opinium Research revealed that:

• Almost four million Britons have less than six months worth of emergency financial provisions should they be unable to work after a critical illness or experience the death of a loved one.
• For those relying on credit cards their emergency financial provisions would last only five months
• About a third would have to drastically cut back on living costs

Almost a third (31%) do not have any form of emergency financial provision ("safety net") in place at all. 23 % of those questioned stated they didn't know what they would do if they suddenly had to maintain their current standard of living without the main source of income.

The poll carried out was on online one and 2044 people responded. I feel this gives a pretty good cross section of the population and the stats revealed pretty much go along with what I have heard in the past.  What I don't understand is why nobody wants to do anything about it.  Every time I see or talk to a client I check to see what their provisions are in these circumstances and make recommendations to meet any shortfalls.  Potential unemployment is a cloud on the horizon for everyone but if you take the time to look at the stats you'll find that around the same number of people are claiming long term disability benefit as are unemployed at the moment (go on try it www.statistics.gov.uk).

There is underwriting involved and sometimes it can be time consuming if your case is less than straightforward but with the help of a good adviser you can get a product right for you.  Not looked at the stats but I bet more people subscribe to Sky Sports than have an income protection policy in place.