Income Protection for Bricklayers
Nobody tells a bricklayer they lift two or three tonnes in a day, but a block weighs around twenty kilos and the day is long.
The weight goes through the same back, the same wrists and the same shoulders, every day, for decades. Add kneeling for below-DPC work, standing on boards in the cold, and vibration from cutting, and the picture is a trade that wears people out rather than injuring them suddenly.
Income protection pays monthly while you cannot work. On price work, where the money stops the moment the laying stops, that is the only thing standing between an injury and a serious problem.
The short answer
A bricklayer lifts several tonnes in a day without noticing, and the trade is usually ended by the accumulated damage rather than by an accident. On price work there is no money at all when you stop laying. Income protection pays a monthly amount while you cannot work, and for this trade the two decisions that matter are the deferred period and whether the policy judges you on bricklaying or on any job at all.
What actually stops you working
- Back injuries from the sheer tonnage handled in a normal week
- Wrist and elbow damage, including tennis elbow, from trowel work and repetitive strain
- Shoulder wear from lifting blocks to height on the scaffold
- Knee problems from kneeling at low level and on boards
- Hand-arm vibration from disc cutters and breakers
- Cement dermatitis and burns, which are common and under-reported in the trade
Sick pay, if you get any
Nothing for the self-employed, and price work makes the cliff edge steeper than in day-rate trades. You are paid for what you lay, so the income does not taper when you slow down, it stops when you stop. A bricklayer working through pain is usually doing it because the alternative is no money at all that week.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
Bricklaying is one of the few jobs where the body is the tool, so a back that cannot take repeated lifting has ended the career while leaving the person able to do most other things. An any occupation policy looks at that person and sees capability; an own occupation policy looks at the same person and sees a bricklayer who can no longer lay. Only the second one is insuring what a bricklayer actually earns from.
Price Work Has No Slow Gear
Most jobs let you ease off when something hurts. Price work does not, and that changes how bricklayers get injured.
If you are paid by what you lay, going at eighty per cent means earning eighty per cent, so the natural response to a sore back is to work through it rather than to rest it. That is how a strain becomes a disc problem. The financial structure of the trade actively pushes people past the point where they should have stopped, and it is the reason bricklayers often present with something that has been going on for months.
Insuring that properly means being honest at application about a back that already grumbles, and it means choosing a deferred period you could actually survive, because the temptation to go back too early is a financial one and a policy that starts paying sooner removes some of the pressure.
The Tonnage Nobody Counts
The reason bricklayers wear out is arithmetic rather than bad luck, and it is worth seeing it written down.
A dense concrete block is around twenty kilos. Lay a few hundred in a day and you have handled several tonnes, every one of them lifted, positioned and adjusted by hand, often from ground level to above shoulder height. Do that for twenty years and the wear is not a risk, it is a certainty. The only question is which joint goes first.
That is a different insurance conversation from an accident risk. It argues for arranging cover early, while the back is still unremarkable to an underwriter, rather than at the point when a scan would show what two decades of blockwork has done.
If you stop
On price work a gang carries on without you and the money follows whoever lays the bricks. There is no retainer, no notice and nothing owing beyond what you have already laid, so a bricklayer who is off for a month is simply out of the job and has to find the next one when fit.
Common questions
Why do bricklayers get back problems so often?+
Because of the weight handled rather than any single incident. A dense concrete block is around twenty kilos, and laying a few hundred in a day means handling several tonnes by hand, often lifting to above shoulder height. Over years that is cumulative wear rather than bad luck. It also means arranging cover early matters, since a back is easier to insure before it has a history than after.
Does price work affect income protection?+
It affects two things. First the income evidence, because insurers usually base the benefit on earnings and self-employed income that varies is worth discussing before you apply rather than at claim. Second the deferred period, because price work has no slow gear: the money stops the day the laying stops, rather than tapering. Both are worth working out with the actual figures in front of you.
Can I claim for a back problem that has built up over years?+
Gradual conditions can be claimed for, but they are assessed more carefully than sudden injuries, and what was declared at application carries real weight. A back you mentioned honestly when you applied is one the insurer has already considered and priced; one that first appears in your medical records after you claim will be the focus of their investigation. Declare the niggles, even the ones you work through.
Is cement dermatitis covered?+
Income protection responds to whether you can work rather than to a particular diagnosis, so a skin condition severe enough to stop you working would generally be treated like any other medical cause. Cement burns and dermatitis are common in the trade and under-reported, which is worth knowing at application: a condition you have had treatment for is something to declare rather than something to leave out because it seemed routine at the time.
Should a bricklayer have life cover as well?+
They are answering different questions. Income protection replaces earnings while you are alive and unable to work, which given how this trade wears bodies out is the more likely claim. Life cover pays out if you die, which protects the household rather than the income. Many people arrange both, with the balance depending on whether there are dependants and a mortgage. We can show you what each costs before you decide.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.
- How income protection worksDeferred periods, how claims are paid and what it costs.
- Income protection for scaffoldersThe other trade that lifts all day at height.
- Income protection for roofersOutdoor, seasonal and physical in the same way.
- Life coverWhat happens to the household rather than the income.
- Talk to an adviserTell us whether you work on price and we will size it properly.