Income Protection for Glaziers
A sealed unit does not bend, does not fold and does not get lighter when you are tired.
Glazing is lifting an awkward, rigid, breakable object into a precise position, often at height off a ladder or a tower, often with one person each side and no way to change grip halfway. When it goes wrong it goes wrong fast and the edges are sharp.
Income protection pays a monthly amount while you cannot work, and this is a trade where a relatively ordinary injury stops everything.
The short answer
Glass is heavy, rigid and sharp, and a unit that slips does not forgive anything. Glaziers get hurt by lifting and by lacerations, and a cut to the hand or forearm ends the work immediately. A self-employed glazier has no sick pay. Income protection replaces a monthly amount while you cannot work.
What actually stops you working
- Lacerations from broken glass, which in this trade reach tendons rather than just skin
- Back injuries from lifting units that cannot be held close to the body
- Crush injuries when a unit slips during positioning
- Falls from ladders and towers while handling something that blocks your view
- Shoulder damage from repeated overhead and extended-reach lifting
- Hand and wrist strain from suction lifters and from carrying by edge
Sick pay, if you get any
None for the self-employed. Glazing is also often priced per job or per unit fitted, so a half-done installation produces no invoice and leaves a customer with an opening that has to be made secure by somebody else.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
A glazier with a tendon injury to the hand is fit for most work and cannot safely take the weight of a unit, which is a job where losing your grip injures somebody. An any occupation definition will not see the distinction. Given how much of this trade is about controlled lifting of something sharp, the definition is doing real work in the contract.
Glass Does Not Let You Change Your Mind
Most lifting lets you adjust, rest or put something down. Glass does not, and that is what makes the injuries different.
A unit being carried cannot be rested on a corner, cannot be gripped differently halfway, and will not survive being dropped. So the lift has to be completed as started, which means people carry on through an awkward moment rather than stopping, and that is where backs go and where glass breaks against a body.
A laceration in this trade is also rarely superficial, because the edge is effectively a blade and the weight behind it is substantial. Tendon damage to a hand or forearm is a long recovery and a complete stop for a glazier.
Emergency Work Is The Part You Lose First
Glazing has a steady half and a profitable half, and they behave differently when you are off.
Planned installations can be rescheduled a little. Board-ups and emergency reglazing cannot: somebody with a broken shopfront at nine at night needs it dealt with tonight, and whoever turns up gets the relationship and the next call. Insurance companies and property managers who pass that work out have a list, and being unavailable twice is usually enough to move down it.
That makes the cost of an absence higher than the lost days suggest, and it argues for a deferred period you could genuinely survive rather than the cheapest option.
If you stop
An opening cannot be left unglazed, so a customer or a main contractor will get somebody else out the same week, often at short notice rates. Emergency and board-up work disappears immediately, and that is frequently the most profitable part of a glazier's week.
A Van, A Suction Lifter And Some Phone Numbers
Glazing leaves very little behind, and the little it leaves is not easily realised.
Tools and a van, possibly a small stock of units, and a set of relationships with property managers and insurers that exist because somebody reliable answers the phone. None of that transfers. There is rarely premises or a business anybody would buy.
So life cover carries the household on its own, and the sum assured is worth setting against the mortgage rather than against any notion of what the business might be worth.
Hands Are The Whole Trade
The ending that catches glaziers is usually a hand, and the person is otherwise entirely well.
Severe tendon or nerve damage means you cannot reliably take the weight of glass, which is not a job where a weak grip is a manageable limitation: it is a safety problem for you and whoever is on the other end. Somebody in that position is employable and finished in this trade.
Monthly cover pays while you are unfit and stops when you are fit for some work. A lump sum funds what comes next, whether that is moving into surveying, estimating or a different trade entirely. Check which conditions a policy actually pays on before relying on it.
Common questions
Do self-employed glaziers get sick pay?+
No. There is no employer and no statutory sick pay. Glazing is also often priced per job or per unit fitted, so a half-done installation produces no invoice and leaves a customer with an opening somebody else has to make secure. Income protection pays a monthly amount regardless of what you managed to complete.
What injures glaziers most?+
Lifting and lacerations. Glass cannot be rested, re-gripped halfway or dropped, so a lift has to be completed as started and people push through awkward moments rather than stopping, which is where backs go. Cuts in this trade reach tendons rather than just skin, because the edge is effectively a blade with real weight behind it.
Would a hand injury be covered?+
If it stops you working, yes, and the definition decides how clearly. Severe tendon or nerve damage means you cannot safely take the weight of glass, which is a safety problem rather than an inconvenience, while leaving you employable elsewhere. An own occupation policy asks whether you can do glazing, which is the question that matters.
How much does being off actually cost?+
More than the days, because emergency and board-up work is the part you lose first and it is often the most profitable. Property managers and insurers who pass that work out keep a list, and being unavailable twice is usually enough to move down it. Factor that into the deferred period rather than choosing on premium alone.
Does working at height change things?+
It is worth describing accurately, because handling a unit off a ladder or tower is a different job from fitting at ground level, and most glaziers do both. Describe your week as it really is rather than at either extreme, because an application that does not match how you work is the thing examined if you claim.
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 carpentersThe other trade where one hand ends the work.
- Income protection for window cleanersThe same windows, from the outside.
- Critical illness coverA lump sum on diagnosis, and what it actually covers.
- Talk to an adviserTell us how much of your work is emergency call-out.