Income Protection for Fencing Contractors
The thing that defines this trade physically is the height the work happens at.
A post has to be driven into the ground from above, which means lifting a driver over the top of the post and bringing it down, repeatedly, with your arms raised. On agricultural work that may be hundreds of posts across a field, on ground that is uneven and wet, with nobody else there.
Income protection pays a monthly amount while you cannot work. For a fencing contractor there is usually nothing else at all, and the work is entirely physical.
The short answer
Fencing work means driving posts, which is repetitive work above shoulder height with either a heavy manual driver or a powered one, on uneven ground and frequently alone. Shoulder injuries and hand-arm vibration are the characteristic results, and agricultural fencing adds remoteness where help is a long way off.
What actually stops you working
- Shoulder injuries, including rotator cuff damage, from repeated post driving above shoulder height
- Hand-arm vibration syndrome from powered post drivers, breakers and augers
- Crush and impact injuries from posts, driver heads and machinery, particularly when working alone
- Back injuries from handling posts, rails, panels and rolls of wire on uneven ground
- Cuts and puncture injuries from wire, particularly strained wire under tension, and from tools
- Falls and musculoskeletal injuries from working on slopes, in ditches and across rough terrain all day
Sick pay, if you get any
Usually none. Fencing is dominated by self-employed contractors and two-person gangs working for farms, estates, builders and householders, so there is no occupational sick pay and no statutory sick pay. The van, trailer, post driver and tool finance continue through an absence, and any job part-completed leaves a customer with an open gap in a boundary.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
The clause matters because the work demands overhead strength and grip. A fencer with a repaired shoulder or vibration damage to their hands is a healthy person capable of plenty of other work, which an any occupation definition will conclude. An own occupation definition asks whether you can do fencing, which means driving posts above shoulder height all day.
Above Shoulder Height Is The Mechanism
Most manual trades damage backs. This one damages shoulders first, and the reason is the geometry of the work.
Driving a post requires getting a driver above the top of the post and bringing it down with force. That means working with the arms elevated, repeatedly, often with a heavy manual driver. The shoulder is poorly suited to repeated loaded work above its own height, and rotator cuff damage is the predictable result over a career.
Tractor-mounted and powered drivers remove much of that and bring their own hazards, including vibration and crush risk around the head. Either way, the shoulder is the joint that decides how long somebody can do this trade, and a damaged shoulder cannot be worked around because the posts still have to go in from above.
Agricultural Work Means Nobody Is Nearby
Domestic fencing happens in gardens with people about. Agricultural fencing happens in fields, and that changes the severity of everything.
A contractor working a field boundary alone, perhaps a long way from the farmyard and possibly without reliable mobile coverage, is in the same position as the forestry worker: the injury rate is one thing and the response time is another. A crush injury from a driver head or a serious wire injury is considerably worse if nobody knows for an hour.
Telling somebody where you are and when you expect to finish costs nothing and matters more than any policy. What insurance covers is the outcome, and in this trade injuries skew serious enough that the payment period deserves as much attention as the deferred period.
If you stop
Agricultural fencing is often urgent because it is containing livestock, so a farm will find somebody else quickly rather than wait. Domestic work is less urgent and the customer still wants it finished. In a trade that runs on recommendation within a farming or local community, an unfinished job is damaging beyond the immediate loss.
Nothing From Work, And Kit On Finance
Self-employed fencing contractors have no death in service, so a household has whatever has been arranged personally.
A van, trailer and post driver represent real money and are usually financed, and those agreements generally become debts of the estate rather than ending with the owner.
So the figure has two parts, as with every machinery trade: what the household needs to live on, and enough to clear the finance so the equipment can be sold properly rather than surrendered.
A Lump Sum When The Shoulder Goes
The characteristic ending is a shoulder that will not take post driving any more, or hands damaged by vibration, usually well before retirement.
That person can work and cannot fence, which is where income protection stops helping once they are judged fit for other employment.
A lump sum funds the move, and there are reasonable directions: tractor and machine work that does the driving for you, estimating and supervising, or a different trade. For a one-person business with no pension behind it, that capital is what makes the next step possible.
If You Employ Or Work In A Gang
A fencing business with another person or two has wages and jobs running against your own absence.
Whether the work can continue depends on whether you are the one quoting, buying materials and dealing with farms and customers, which in a small fencing business is usually the case even when the physical work could be covered.
Cover can be sized against the gap that remains once the gang keeps working, which is more accurate than assuming everything stops. Where a particular person has the relationships with the farms that provide repeat work, cover on them is worth considering, arranged by and paid to the business.
Common questions
Why are shoulders the problem in this trade?+
Because posts are driven from above, which means working with the arms elevated and bringing a heavy driver down repeatedly. The shoulder is poorly suited to loaded work above its own height, and rotator cuff damage is the predictable result over a career. A damaged shoulder cannot be worked around.
Is hand-arm vibration covered?+
Income protection responds to being unable to work through illness or injury whatever the cause, so it would be assessed on that basis. The definition matters: own occupation asks whether you can do fencing, which depends on grip and overhead strength, while an any occupation policy may find you fit for other work.
I work alone in fields. Does that affect cover?+
It affects severity rather than eligibility. The cover responds to being unable to work however the injury happened. The practical point is that injuries in remote lone working tend to be worse because help is further away, which usually means longer absences and argues for a longer payment period.
What do I get if I cannot work?+
Nothing by way of sick pay, and no statutory sick pay either since you are self-employed, while van, trailer and equipment finance continues. That usually means a shorter deferred period makes sense than it would for an employed worker with a scheme.
My income varies with the season. How is it assessed?+
We would look at your earnings across a full year rather than a good month, because the figure needs to be defensible and fencing work is weather and season dependent. Establishing that properly at the outset is far better than at claim stage.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.
Working for yourself?
Income protection covers your own earnings. It does not cover what the business owes other people, so if you work for yourself you probably need public liability and tools cover as well. That side is arranged by CoverTrade. Business insurance for fencing contractors.