What actually decides what you'll pay for income protection
Income protection is one of the more individually priced products in this market, so I won't pretend a page like this can hand you a number. What I can do is walk through exactly what an insurer looks at — including two factors that don't come up with most other cover — and show you where you genuinely have a say in the outcome.
Occupation in particular does more to move an income protection quote than almost any other single factor, which is worth understanding before you compare anything.
What actually drives your price
The factors an insurer actually looks at
Every insurer weighs the same broad set of factors. What you can’t change sets your starting point; what you can change is where you have real control over the outcome.
Your age
FixedAs with any protection product, age is one of the starting inputs into how an insurer assesses the risk over the life of the policy. It's fixed at the point you apply.
Smoker status
FixedSmokers and non-smokers are assessed on different terms, reflecting risk across the insurer's wider customer base. It reflects your status today, and can shift over time if you stop.
Health and medical history
FixedYour health and medical history are central to how income protection is underwritten, often more so than for lump-sum cover, because the insurer is assessing the likelihood of you being unable to work, not just of a single claim event.
Occupation
FixedThis is the factor that sets income protection apart from other cover. A desk-based role and a physically demanding or higher-risk occupation are viewed very differently, because the practical likelihood — and cost — of a claim differs sharply between them. Two people the same age and in the same health can be quoted on genuinely different terms purely because of what they do for a living.
Deferred period
Your choiceThis is the length of time you'd wait, unpaid by the policy, before payments start — you choose it, often to match how long your savings or existing sick pay would carry you. A shorter deferred period generally means cover that responds sooner but is more expensive to insure; a longer one is the reverse.
Own-occupation or any-occupation
Your choiceOwn-occupation cover pays out if you can't do your own specific job. Any-occupation cover only pays if you can't do any job you're reasonably suited to — a much higher bar, and one that results in fewer successful claims. The stronger own-occupation definition is generally the more expensive of the two to insure.
Monthly income insured
Your choiceHow much monthly income you choose to insure — for example, £1,500 a month — and for how long you'd want it to keep paying, are both decisions you make based on your actual outgoings.
Want an actual figure?
I can't quote you here — but with a few details about your situation, I can usually get you real income protection figures from real insurers within a day.
Same person, different quotes
Why insurers don't agree on your occupation
Occupation underwriting is where income protection insurers diverge the most from one another. Insurers each build their own view of risk by job type, drawing on their own claims experience, so a role one insurer treats cautiously might be one another insurer is entirely comfortable with. This isn't inconsistency for its own sake — it reflects genuinely different books of business and different claims history behind each insurer's pricing — but it does mean the only reliable way to know how a specific insurer will view your occupation is to actually ask, which is a large part of why comparing matters more here than almost anywhere else in protection.
I compare cover from leading UK insurers.
- Vitality
- Scottish Widows
- Zurich
- Legal & General
- Aviva
- Guardian
- MetLife
- The Exeter
- LV=
- Royal London
Price isn’t the whole story
Why the lowest quote isn't automatically the right policy
The cheapest income protection quote is very often the one with the weaker definition — any-occupation rather than own-occupation, or a longer deferred period than actually suits your savings position. Both genuinely reduce what you're quoted, and both genuinely reduce how likely you are to have a straightforward claim accepted when you actually need one. The right comparison isn't which quote is lowest, it's which policy actually pays out for the situation you're most likely to face given what you do for a living.
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Questions people ask
Straight answers, no jargon.
Can you at least give me a rough idea before we talk?
Not responsibly, no — income protection is priced heavily on your occupation and health, both of which vary hugely from person to person, so any figure I gave without knowing yours would be meaningless. A short conversation gets you real figures from real insurers, usually within a day.
Does my occupation really make that much difference to my quote?
Yes, more than almost any other single factor for this particular product. Insurers each take their own view of different occupations based on their claims experience, so it's genuinely worth checking more than one rather than assuming your job is priced the same everywhere.
What's the difference between own-occupation and any-occupation cover?
Own-occupation cover pays out if you can't do your own specific job. Any-occupation cover only pays out if you can't do any job you're reasonably suited to, which is a much higher bar and results in fewer accepted claims. It's usually worth understanding this trade-off properly before choosing based on the quote alone.
Should I choose a longer deferred period just to bring the quote down?
Only if your savings or existing sick pay would genuinely carry you through that longer wait — otherwise you've reduced what you're quoted at the cost of a real gap in cover if you needed to claim. It's worth working out what you could actually bridge yourself before choosing a deferred period.
I'm self-employed — does that change how I'm assessed?
It changes how your income is evidenced rather than the underlying factors — insurers will usually want a reasonably accurate picture of your average earnings, alongside the same age, health, and occupation questions everyone else answers.
How do you get paid, and do you only work with one insurer?
My advice costs you nothing. My commission is funded by the insurer if you decide to go ahead with a policy, and it doesn't change what you pay. I compare cover from leading UK insurers.
Tell me your situation.
Two minutes now. I'll come back to you within one working day with real figures from real insurers, based on you — not a guess.