New Ireland Income Protection

Income Protection is an insurance policy that gives you an ongoing source of income if you become ill and can’t work, until you’re able to return to your job.

You could need time off your job to recover from your illness or injury, but without your income, you may only have sick pay, illness benefit, or savings to rely upon.

Your mortgage, bills and weekly food shop will still need to be paid. Income Protection can give your family stability when you’re unwell.

When you have a mortgage, you need mortgage protection, which clears your loan if you die, but doesn’t pay anything if you’re ill & can’t make your mortgage payments. You can get Life Insurance, which pays your family a lump sum if you die, but again doesn’t pay anything if you become ill.

You may also have a Serious Illness policy. This will pay a partial or full lump sum if you suffer an illness or injury covered by the policy. The illnesses & injuries covered by these policies are usually quite severe, and the definitions are strict. You’ll only be paid once, and with most policies you can’t make multiple claims.

Income protection however pays out on any illness, injury or disability that prevents you from working. (pre-existing conditions may be excluded). With Income protection, you can make multiple claims over the lifetime of your policy.  

While you’re healthy, you pay a premium every month.

If you are unfortunate to fall ill or become injured and are unable to work during the term of your plan, you can then make a claim and receive a monthly income until you’re fit to return to work or you reach the end of the plan.

Every income protection provider has a minimum number of deferred weeks in their terms and conditions.

This means you cannot start an income protection policy and start claiming straight away. Deferred periods range from 4 – 52 weeks. The longer your deferred period the cheaper your policy will be.

You will also have the option to apply indexation to your income protection policy. This allows for your income protection policy benefit to increase each year in line with inflation. Be aware when indexation is applied to a policy it means your premium will also increase.

While you’re getting your monthly income, you don’t pay any premiums. When your illness ends and you return to work, you start paying premiums again.

With New Ireland income protection, making a claim is a simple, straightforward process. New Ireland will work with you and Greenway Financial Advisors to ensure that you are supported every step of the way, leaving you time to focus on getting better.

If you need to make a claim, please ensure you contact New Ireland as early as possible. This will help New Ireland pay your claim on time.

You can start the claim process by telephone at (01) 6172904, e-mail: incomeprotectionclaims@newireland.ie or by writing to New Ireland Income Protection Claims Team, New Ireland Assurance, 9-12 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.

Once notified New Ireland will issue a claim form to be completed. This needs to be returned no later than the timelines outlined in New Ireland claims guide.

Once you meet the timeframes outlined in the New Ireland income protection claims guide, they will start your payments after the deferred period outlined in your policy.

A member of the New Ireland income protection team will follow up with your doctor or consultant to review your medical status and obtain any medical information they may need to complete the claim assessment.

Once all the medical evidence and documentation have been received New Irelands Chief Medical Officer will make a decision on your claim. If your claim is valid, they will continue to make payments to you until you are ready to return to work.

In some cases, New Ireland will arrange for a specialist nurse to call out to you to discuss your claim and offer advice. Alternatively, the New Ireland claims team will guide you through the claims process so you’ll know what to expect and help with any questions or worries you may have.

You may need income protection if you:

• Are self-employed and would have no source of income if you couldn’t work due to illness or disability.
• Have little or no sick pay from your employer.
• Have dependents who rely on your income
• Have no other source of income.
• Do not have sufficient benefits to replace your lost income to cover your expenses while ill.

Before you take out income protection, you should check if you are entitled to other benefits:

• Social welfare illness benefit: a weekly payment you may get from the State.
• If you are self-employed it is important to know illness benefit is not available to you.
• The maximum personal rate of illness benefit is €208 per week. 
• Would this amount cover your expenses?
• Social welfare disability benefit: a weekly payment you may get from the State.
• It is not available if you are self-employed.
• Sick pay: your employer pays all or part of your wages for a time. This will depend on the terms of your employment which should be shown in your employment contract and staff handbook.

• You can get tax relief on your income protection premium at your marginal (highest) rate of tax, up to a yearly limit of 10% of your total income.
• This can make your premium more affordable, but remember your benefit will be taxable if you make a claim.
• If you have an individual policy, your insurance company will give you a statement showing the premiums paid.
• To claim your tax relief you need to include this information with your tax return.
• If you are a member of a group scheme, your employer usually takes your premium from your salary before tax. In this instance, you would not qualify for tax relief.

Example of Income Protection Tax Relief #1:

1. John earns €50,000 gross salary per year.
2. John has an income protection policy that costs €100 per month.
3. John can claim tax relief at his marginal rate of 40%, which means the net cost of his monthly premium is €60.
4. John has to pay the €100 per month and then claim his tax relief back directly from Revenue each year.
5. John will receive a €480 refund from revenue each year.

Example of Income Protection Tax Relief #2:

1. Aoife earns €32,000 gross salary per year.
2. Aoife has an income protection policy that costs €100 per month.
3. Aoife can claim tax relief at her marginal rate of 20%, which means the net cost of her monthly premium is €80.
4. Aoife has to pay the €100 per month and then claim her tax relief back directly from Revenue each year.
5. Aoife will receive a €240 refund from revenue each year.

Not everyone needs their income to start as soon as they’re out of work. If your employer pays you sick pay, you might only want your money to kick in after that.

The time in between when you stop working and when we start paying you is called your deferred period. You can choose how long this is: 8, 13, 26 or 52 weeks).

The longer you wait, the lower your premiums will be.