Income Protection for Florists
The parts of this job that wear people out are the parts customers never see.
Buying stock means being at a market before most people are awake. Conditioning it means hours with your hands in water, stripping thorns and foliage, in a room kept cold enough to keep the stock alive. The arranging, which is the bit that looks like the job, is fine repetitive work with wire and scissors.
Income protection pays a monthly amount while you cannot work. For a florist with a shop, the shop's costs are part of what needs protecting.
The short answer
Floristry looks gentle and is physically demanding in specific ways: very early starts to buy stock, hours working in a chilled room, hands permanently wet and cut, and repetitive fine work wiring and conditioning stems. Several common flowers are recognised skin sensitisers, and a shop's costs carry on whether the florist is well or not.
What actually stops you working
- Occupational dermatitis and skin sensitisation, since several common flowers including alstroemeria and chrysanthemum are recognised sensitisers
- Cuts and thorn injuries to hands, with the infection risk that comes from wounds in constantly wet conditions
- Hand and wrist conditions from repetitive wiring, cutting and conditioning work
- Back and shoulder injuries from lifting buckets of water, boxes of stock and moving displays
- Cold-related joint and circulation problems from working daily in a chilled workroom
- Chronic fatigue and sleep disruption from very early market starts, particularly around peak trading periods
Sick pay, if you get any
Usually none. Most florists are self-employed, running a shop or working from home and at events, so there is no occupational sick pay and no statutory sick pay. A shop's rent, rates and refrigeration continue through an absence, and the stock has a shelf life measured in days. Florists employed in a larger retail operation may have occupational sick pay, which is a different position worth confirming.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
The clause matters because the work needs hands that function in wet, cold conditions. A florist with sensitised skin or a hand condition is otherwise entirely well and employable, which an any occupation definition will conclude. An own occupation definition asks whether you can work as a florist, which involves handling the specific plants and conditions that caused the problem.
Weddings Are Dated Commitments, Which Changes The Risk
This is the exposure specific to floristry and it does not apply to most trades on this site.
A plumbing job can be done next week. A wedding cannot. Event work is booked months in advance for a specific date, usually with deposits taken, and if the florist cannot deliver then somebody else has to be found at short notice or the commitment fails. For a one-person business with several weddings in a summer, an injury in June is a run of dated obligations that cannot be moved.
The practical consequence is that cover for a florist should be thought about alongside how those commitments would be met, not only how the household would be paid. Having the money to subcontract a booking to another florist is a different and sometimes more useful thing than having the money to live on.
The Skin Problem Is Real And Specific
Florists' hands take a particular combination of insults and the sensitisation risk is better documented than most people expect.
Hands are wet most of the day, which damages the skin barrier. They are cut and pricked by thorns and wire, which breaks it. And several common flowers, including alstroemeria and chrysanthemum, are recognised skin sensitisers, so the broken barrier is in contact with the sensitiser repeatedly. That is the mechanism for occupational dermatitis in this trade and it is why it is common.
Gloves and barrier creams genuinely help and no policy substitutes for using them. What insurance covers is the outcome you did not control, and the usual timing rule applies with force: anything already on your records when you apply will be asked about, so arranging cover before the first bad flare is a materially better position.
If you stop
A shop that cannot open loses the stock it has already bought, because flowers do not keep. Wedding and event work is worse: those are dated commitments booked months ahead with deposits taken, and a florist who cannot deliver on the day has a contractual problem as well as a clinical one. Those bookings are also the most profitable part of the trade.
Self-Arranged, With Perishable Stock And A Lease
Self-employed florists have no death in service, so a household has whatever has been arranged personally.
Where there is a shop, a family is also left with a lease, refrigeration, fittings and stock that is worthless within a week. They cannot run it and cannot sell it quickly, while the rent continues.
That makes two figures worth working out: what the household needs to live on, and enough to close or sell the business in an orderly way rather than under pressure from a lease nobody wanted.
A Lump Sum For Hands That Cannot Handle The Stock
The characteristic ending in this trade is skin or hands that cannot tolerate the work, or a back that cannot do the lifting and the early starts.
That leaves somebody healthy and unable to do this particular job, which is where income protection stops helping once they are judged fit for other work.
A lump sum funds the alternative, and floristry has some: teaching and workshops, dried and artificial work that avoids the wet conditioning, or running a shop with employed florists doing the handling. Each needs capital or a period of lower income to establish.
If You Have A Shop
A florist's shop has an unusual cost profile, and it is worth sizing cover against it rather than only against your earnings.
Rent and rates continue, refrigeration runs day and night whether or not anybody is buying, and the stock you bought on Monday is worthless by the following week. Unlike most retail you cannot simply close for a month and reopen with the same inventory.
Where you have dated event commitments, having funds to subcontract them to another florist protects both the customer relationship and your reputation, which matters in a trade that runs substantially on recommendation. That is worth including in the conversation about how much cover to arrange.
Common questions
Is dermatitis really a risk for florists?+
Yes, and it is well documented. Hands are wet most of the day, which damages the skin barrier, they are cut by thorns and wire, which breaks it, and several common flowers including alstroemeria and chrysanthemum are recognised sensitisers. The combination is why occupational dermatitis is common in this trade.
I am self-employed with a shop. What happens if I cannot work?+
There is no sick pay and no statutory sick pay, while rent, rates and refrigeration continue and your stock perishes. That is a worse position than most self-employed trades, where stopping simply means not earning, and it usually argues for a shorter deferred period.
What about weddings I have already booked?+
That is the exposure specific to this trade. Event work is dated and cannot be moved, so an injury means finding another florist to deliver or failing a commitment. Having funds to subcontract a booking is worth thinking about alongside having funds to live on.
My income is very seasonal. How is it worked out?+
We would look at your actual pattern across a full year rather than a peak month, because the figure needs to be defensible. Floristry has pronounced peaks around particular dates, so establishing a realistic annual income at the outset matters more here than in steadier trades.
My hands are already sore and cracked. Can I get cover?+
Worth raising rather than leaving out. Anything already in your records, and anything you are aware of, will be asked about and may affect the terms offered, and acceptance is the insurer's decision. Applying before it becomes a documented condition is a better position.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.