Irish Medical Organisation

It pays to protect your income

Thank you to everyone who completed our most recent survey and provided us with some great feedback. It is vital for us to find out what our members’ financial interests and concerns are.

Due to the reduction of public service sick leave arrangements, we are receiving more and more requests for information on income protection.

Income protection is at the forefront of a lot of our members’ minds. This is understandable because since March 31st, 2014 paid sick leave for public service employees including HSE employees has been reduced:

Old arrangement: New arrangement:
Six months full pay Three months full pay
Six months half pay Three months half pay

Under the new arrangement, HSE employees incapacitated as a result of critical illness or serious physical injury but who have supporting medical evidence may be granted extended sick leave.

As paid sick leave entitlements are calculated on the basis of a four-year rolling period, HSE employees with a high incidence of sick leave over the last four years are particularly affected by it.

At a time where our members have experienced considerable cutbacks, it is all the more important to protect your largest financial asset, your income. This funds your lifestyle, mortgage repayments and your children’s education.

Income protection will provide you with an alternative regular income if you suffer an illness or injury that prevents you from working.

The facts

There are numerous products on the market with similar features:

  • Benefit cannot exceed 75% of pre-disability income
  • Benefits cease on recovery, return to work, retirement or death
  • It can pay out after 8, 13, 26 or 52 weeks following illness or injury
  • To protect against inflation, payments to claimants can be indexed
  • Applications are subject to underwriting
  • Tax relief is available on your premiums at your marginal rate of tax
  • Some product providers offer special offers such as free life cover

Some products are specifically designed with the medical profession in mind as they offer special features such as:

  • Cover while abroad (e.g. EU countries, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Saudi Arabia). This is of particular interest to those planning to gain work experience abroad for a period of time.
  • May include a percentage of overtime when calculating maximum benefit

A number of our members have already taken up income protection. To those who have, I strongly recommend that they review their income protection cover with us to ensure that they are still adequately covered. As you know all our reviews are free of charge.

As IMO FS is not tied to a single life assurance company, we can search the market for the cheapest quotes on your behalf and advise you on the product most suitable to your specific circumstances.

If you wish to receive further information or discuss this subject in more detail with one of our financial advisers, please email us on imofs@imo.ie or call on 01/6618299.

Please feel free to contact me on npaic@imo.ie if you would like me to cover any specific financial matter.

All the staff at IMO FS are looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Nives Paic QFA
General Manager
IMO Financial Services 

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