Income Protection for Electricians

Electrical work needs your hands and your eyes more than almost any trade, and it is the first thing people forget when they think about being off work.

Second fixing, terminating into a consumer unit, identifying cores, reading a tester: all of it needs fine motor control and close vision. An injury that would be an inconvenience in an office job takes an electrician off the tools completely, and if you are self-employed the money stops at the same moment.

Income protection is the cover that deals with that. It pays a monthly amount while you cannot work, and unlike critical illness it does not care whether the reason is dramatic. A bad fall off a step ladder counts.

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The short answer

A self-employed electrician has no sick pay, so income stops the day the work stops. Income protection replaces part of that income each month until you can work again or the policy ends. For an electrician the detail that matters most is how the policy defines being unable to work: the trade needs steady hands, good close vision and the ability to get up a ladder, so a policy that pays only when you cannot do any job at all is a much weaker promise than one that looks at your own occupation.

What actually stops you working

A hand or finger injury, which ends fine work even when everything else is fine
Eye damage from an arc flash, or any lasting change to close vision
A fall from a step ladder or loft hatch, which is where most electricians' falls happen rather than from scaffolding
Back and shoulder injuries from working overhead and in roof spaces
Electric shock, and the heart and nerve problems that can follow one
Hand-arm vibration from chasing walls and drilling, which builds over years

Sick pay, if you get any

If you are self-employed there is none. No employer, no statutory sick pay, and nothing arrives while you are not invoicing. If you work through your own limited company the company can only keep paying you while it has money coming in, which it will not if you are the person doing the work.

Why the definition of incapacity decides it

This is the clause that matters most for an electrician and the one people skim. A policy written on your own occupation asks whether you can do electrical work. A policy written on any occupation asks whether you can do any job at all, and somebody with a damaged hand can usually still do something. Two policies at similar prices can therefore mean completely different things on the day you claim, so check which definition you are buying rather than only the premium.

The Injury That Ends Electrical Work Is Smaller Than You Think

People insure against the catastrophe and get caught by the small thing, and in this trade the small thing is a hand.

A crushed finger, a tendon injury, a bad burn across the palm, nerve damage from a shock: none of those put you in hospital for long, and all of them stop you terminating into a board or stripping a core cleanly. The same is true of close vision. An electrician who cannot reliably tell cores apart or read a tester screen is not working, whatever the rest of their body is doing.

That is why the incapacity definition matters more here than the headline monthly benefit. Being able to answer a phone and lift a box is enough for most any-occupation definitions, and it is nowhere near enough to run electrical jobs.

Most Electricians Fall Off Something Short

Ask an electrician about working at height and they will think about scaffolding, which is the one place they are usually safe.

The falls that happen in this trade are from step ladders, loft hatches, a chair somebody stood on because the job was a two minute one, and through a ceiling while moving across joists in a roof space. They are short falls onto hard floors, and they produce exactly the back, wrist and heel injuries that keep somebody off the tools for months.

Insurers ask about working at height for this reason, and the honest answer for most electricians is that they are up something low several times a day. It is worth answering that question accurately rather than optimistically, because an answer that does not match how you actually work is the kind of thing that gets examined at claim.

If you stop

A one-person electrical business stops entirely. Work in progress sits unfinished in somebody's house, the customer finds another sparky, and the jobs booked for next month go with them. Getting the diary back afterwards takes longer than getting better does.

Common questions

Do self-employed electricians get any sick pay?+

No. Statutory sick pay comes from an employer, and a self-employed electrician does not have one. If you trade through your own limited company it can keep paying you only while money is still coming in, and it will not be if you are the one doing the work. That is the gap income protection is designed for: it pays a monthly amount while you cannot work, regardless of whether anybody is invoicing.

What counts as being unable to work as an electrician?+

It depends entirely on which definition your policy uses, which is why it is worth checking before price. An own occupation definition asks whether you can do electrical work. An any occupation definition asks whether you can do any job at all, and somebody with a damaged hand or impaired close vision can usually still do something. For a trade that needs steady hands and good near vision, that difference decides whether a claim pays.

Will an electrician pay more than an office worker?+

Usually yes. Insurers price on how physical the work is and what the job involves, and manual trades are rated differently from desk jobs. We cannot tell you where a given insurer places electricians specifically, because that varies between them and is not something to guess at. What we can do is put the same details to several insurers and show you what each one actually comes back with.

Does income protection cover accidents outside work?+

Typically yes, and this surprises people. Income protection generally pays when you cannot work, not only when the reason happened on site. A motorbike accident at the weekend, a back injury lifting at home or an illness with nothing to do with the job can all stop an electrician working, and they are all the same problem for your income. Check the wording for any excluded activities, which is where sports and hobbies sometimes appear.

How much cover can an electrician get?+

It is based on your earnings, because the point is to replace income rather than improve on it, and insurers typically cap the benefit at a proportion of what you earn. For self-employed electricians the figure usually comes from your accounts or tax returns, so income that fluctuates year to year is worth discussing before you apply rather than at claim. Talk to us and we will work it out from your actual figures.

Cover that often goes with this

The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.