Income Protection for Roofers
Every trade has a point where you can go back on light duties. Roofing does not have one.
A plasterer with a dodgy knee can work slowly. A roofer with a dodgy knee cannot be on a pitched roof in February, and no sensible person would want them there. That is what makes this trade different for income protection: the gap between "recovering" and "back at work" is longer than almost anywhere else, and it is a gap with no income in it.
Income protection pays monthly while you cannot work. For a roofer the detail that decides whether it pays is how the policy defines not being able to work.
The short answer
Roofing is the trade where partial recovery is worth least, because there is no version of the job you can do carefully. You are either fit to be on a roof or you are not. That makes the definition of incapacity the single most important thing in a roofer's policy: a contract that pays only when you cannot do any work at all will often say no to somebody who can walk but cannot safely climb.
What actually stops you working
- Falls, which are the defining risk of the trade and rarely minor
- Knee and ankle injuries, which end roof work even when they would not end much else
- Back injuries from carrying materials up ladders and across pitches
- Shoulder problems from repetitive overhead and reaching work
- Anything affecting balance, including inner ear problems and some medications
- A diagnosis that makes working at height unsafe, such as epilepsy or blackouts
Sick pay, if you get any
None for the self-employed, and roofing has a particular problem on top: weather already costs you days you are not paid for, so most roofers are used to absorbing short gaps and have nothing left over for a long one. The money that would have carried you through a wet fortnight is not there for a broken ankle.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
No trade needs this clause more. Somebody who has recovered enough to walk, drive and carry a box has recovered enough to satisfy most any occupation definitions, and is nowhere near able to work on a roof. If a roofer buys a policy on an any occupation basis, there is a real chance of being judged fit for work while being entirely unable to do the only work they do. Check this before you check the premium.
There Are No Light Duties On A Roof
This is the sentence that should decide which policy a roofer buys, and it is usually not the sentence anybody reads.
Almost every other job has a reduced version. You can sit down to do it, do fewer hours, take the easy jobs for a month. Roofing has none of that, because the thing that makes it dangerous is being up there at all. An insurer assessing whether you can do some work will quite reasonably conclude that a man who can drive to the shops can do some work. They are right, and it is also irrelevant to a roofer's income.
So the question to ask of any policy is a simple one: on the day I claim, will you be asking whether I can do roofing, or whether I can do anything? The answer should be in the wording, and if it is not clear, it is not a policy to buy.
The Season Costs More Than The Injury
Roofers tend to measure time off in weeks and lose money in seasons, which is a particular feature of this trade.
Work is booked around weather. A broken wrist in March that keeps you off for ten weeks takes out the start of the dry season, and the customers who were waiting for you do not wait, because they have a leak. By the time you are fit, the work has gone to whoever was available and the back half of the year is booked around somebody else.
That is worth saying out loud when deciding how much benefit to arrange and for how long. The cost of being off is not the lost weeks, it is the diary that gets rebuilt afterwards, and roofers routinely underestimate it.
If you stop
Roofing is weather-driven and seasonal, so a gang that loses its roofer in the autumn does not simply wait. Work booked for the dry spell goes to whoever can get on it, and a roofer off for three months in the wrong part of the year can lose most of a season rather than most of a quarter.
Common questions
Can a roofer get income protection?+
Yes, though it is rated as the physical, working-at-height job that it is, and insurers vary more on trades like this than on office work. That variation is the reason to go through a broker rather than to one insurer: the same details can come back very differently from different places. What we cannot do is promise acceptance or tell you in advance where a given insurer will place roofing.
Why does the definition of incapacity matter so much for roofers?+
Because there is no light-duties version of roofing. A policy written on an any occupation basis asks whether you can do any work at all, and somebody who can walk, drive and lift a box will usually satisfy that, while being completely unable to work on a pitched roof. A policy written on your own occupation asks whether you can do roofing. For this trade that difference is the whole value of the contract.
Does income protection pay if I fall at home rather than at work?+
Generally yes. Income protection is about whether you can work, not about where the injury happened, so a fall off a ladder at home that breaks your ankle stops a roofer working just as effectively as one on site. Check the wording for excluded activities, which is usually where specific sports and pastimes appear rather than ordinary life.
How long should a roofer insure for?+
Longer than the recovery, because roofing work is seasonal and the diary takes longer to rebuild than the injury takes to heal. Ten weeks off in spring can cost most of a dry season, since customers with a leak will not wait. When deciding the benefit period, think about how long it would take to be earning properly again rather than how long until you are physically fit.
Will a previous fall or joint injury stop me getting cover?+
Not necessarily, but it will be asked about and it may be excluded or loaded, which is normal rather than a reason not to apply. Insurers treat previous injuries differently from one another, and a knee that one insurer excludes outright another may simply rate. Declare it accurately: an old injury disclosed at application is one the insurer has priced, and one that first appears in your records at claim is the thing they will focus on.
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 lives at height.
- Income protection for bricklayersOutdoor, seasonal and physical in the same way.
- Life coverWhat happens to the household rather than the income.
- Talk to an adviserAsk us which insurers look at roofing most sensibly.