Income Protection For Aerial And Satellite Installers
Aerial work is roof work without any of the things that make roof work safer.
A roofer arrives to scaffold and a crew. An aerial installer arrives alone in a van, puts a ladder against a gutter, and goes up to a chimney or a gable end carrying a bracket, a mast and a drill.
Much of the demand comes after bad weather, which means the busiest days are frequently the windiest ones.
The short answer
Aerial and satellite installers work at the edge of domestic roofs, almost always from a ladder, almost always alone, and in weather that is often the reason they were called out. There is rarely scaffold and never a colleague at the bottom. Income protection replaces part of your earnings if illness or injury stops you working.
What actually stops you working
- Falls from ladders, which is the dominant risk and produces serious injuries
- Shoulder and arm injuries from working overhead at full stretch from a ladder
- Back injuries from carrying ladders, poles and equipment alone
- Hand and wrist injuries from drilling into masonry at awkward angles
- Electrical injury from contact with overhead lines or an unsafe installation
- Knee and ankle injuries from working on pitched roofs and in lofts
- Hand-arm vibration from masonry drilling, which is daily in this trade
Sick pay, if you get any
Aerial installers are overwhelmingly self-employed sole traders, sometimes working for a satellite provider's network and sometimes direct to the public. Either way there is no sick pay, and the income is entirely jobs-per-day, so an absence produces an immediate and total stop.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
Own occupation is close to essential, because the work is defined by climbing. Somebody who can no longer go up a ladder is employable in plenty of roles and cannot do this job at all, and an any occupation policy would treat them as fit for work.
Alone, On A Ladder, Is The Whole Risk Picture
The reason this trade deserves its own page rather than being lumped in with roofing is the absence of everything else.
No scaffold, no edge protection, no colleague footing the ladder, no second person to call for help, and frequently a householder who does not know what is going on outside. A ladder that slips with nobody there is how an injury in this trade becomes a serious one.
That is worth describing honestly on an application rather than as electrical or installation work. An insurer pricing ladder work done alone at domestic roof level is pricing the actual job, and acceptance and terms are their decision either way. Describing it vaguely risks a policy that does not reflect what you do.
The Weather That Creates The Work Is The Weather That Causes Falls
There is a perverse incentive in this trade and it is worth stating plainly.
Aerials come loose, dishes move and signals fail during and after storms, so the phone rings hardest when conditions are worst. The temptation to go up in wind, on a wet roof, because three more customers are waiting, is the mechanism behind a good proportion of the trade's serious incidents.
There is nothing an insurance page can do about that except note what it means for cover: this is a trade where the realistic scenario is a sudden fall rather than a gradual condition, which argues for adequate benefit, a short deferred period, and genuine attention to the life and critical illness side rather than income protection alone.
If you stop
A domestic customer with no television signal will phone the next installer the same day rather than wait, so there is no stored goodwill to come back to. For installers on a provider's network, allocated jobs are reassigned and the allocation tends to resume slowly.
What A Household Is Left With In This Trade
Sole traders have no death in service, so the household has only what has been arranged privately.
Because the dominant risk here is a fall from height while working alone, this is one of the trades where the life side genuinely deserves attention first rather than last.
The sum worth covering is the mortgage, van finance, and the years of income a household would need. It is worth doing the arithmetic rather than picking a round number.
A Lump Sum After A Fall You Survive
The characteristic serious event is a ladder fall producing back, pelvic or limb injuries, which people frequently survive with permanent consequences.
That can mean being alive, out of this trade for good, and facing both retraining and possibly adaptations at home. Income protection replaces earnings; it funds neither of the other two.
A lump sum does, and it pays on diagnosis rather than after a deferred period, which matters when the costs arrive first. Aerial experience moves into commercial systems, CCTV and networking, surveying and service management.
If It Is Just You And A Van
Almost every aerial business is one person, one van and a phone number, which makes an absence total rather than partial.
Van finance, insurance, advertising and the phone line all continue, and the customer base is only as loyal as the next installer's availability.
Cover can be sized to include those continuing costs as well as personal income, which is worth considering for a business with no capacity to operate without you at all.
Common questions
Can an aerial installer get income protection?+
It is worth asking. Ladder work at domestic roof level done alone is a genuine consideration and acceptance and terms are the insurer's decision. Describing it accurately rather than as general installation work is what gets a policy that reflects the job.
Why is this riskier than roofing?+
Because of what is missing rather than what is present. A roofer usually has scaffold, edge protection and a crew; an aerial installer has a ladder and nobody at the bottom, which is how a slip becomes a serious injury.
Does working alone affect my cover?+
It is worth declaring because it is part of what the work actually is. It also matters practically: there is nobody to call for help, which affects the severity of outcomes rather than the likelihood of an accident.
What deferred period makes sense?+
A short one. There is no sick pay, the income is jobs-per-day, and a customer with no signal phones the next installer the same day rather than waiting, so there is no stored goodwill to return to.
Should I think about life cover too?+
Yes, and arguably first in this trade. The dominant risk is a fall from height while working alone, and sole traders have nothing behind the household at all.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.