Income Protection For Safety Netting Riggers
Every other trade on a steel frame or a roof works above a net. The riggers work above nothing, because they are the ones putting it there.
The nets go up before the followers arrive and come down after they leave, so the rigging crew brackets the whole job and takes the drop at both ends.
It is specialist, certificated work carried out by small crews, and the margin between doing it properly and a serious fall is the crew's own discipline.
The short answer
Safety netting riggers fix the nets and soft landing systems that protect other trades, which means working at height above an unprotected drop in order to create the protection. The exposure is the same fall everybody else is being saved from, taken on first and removed last. Income protection replaces part of your earnings if illness or injury stops you working.
What actually stops you working
- Falls during installation and strip-out, which is the defining risk of the trade
- Shoulder and arm injuries from hauling and tensioning heavy nets overhead
- Hand and finger damage from net cord, clips, tying and anchor fixing
- Back injuries from manoeuvring rolled nets along a frame or roof edge
- Knee and ankle injuries from moving along steelwork and purlins
- Anything affecting balance or consciousness, which rules out the work immediately
- Being stood down after a fall or near miss on site while it is investigated
Sick pay, if you get any
Netting is done by specialist subcontractors and most riggers are self-employed or on day rates, so a cancelled day pays nothing. Where a rigger is employed by a netting firm there may be a short contractual period, but earnings are usually built from day rates and travel, which statutory sick pay does not approach.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
Own occupation is the definition that matters, because the alternative work is real and far worse paid. A rigger who can no longer work at height is employable on the ground, and an any occupation policy would treat that as fit for work while the day rate that justified the risk has gone.
You Take The Risk Before The Protection Exists
This is the thing that separates netting from every other trade on the site, and it is worth stating plainly on an application.
A roofer, a steel erector or a cladding installer arrives to find the nets already in place. The rigger arrives to a bare frame. The installation is done from the steel itself, using harnesses and running lines, above a drop that has nothing in it yet, and the strip-out is the same situation in reverse after everybody else has gone.
Describing yourself as working at height understates it. Describing the work accurately, that you install and remove the fall protection system itself, is what lets an insurer price the actual job rather than assume the general case, and acceptance and terms are their decision either way.
Strip-Out Is The Part People Forget
Attention and discipline are highest at installation, when the job is new and the crew is fresh. Strip-out is where the trade gets caught.
By then the building is nearly finished, the programme is tight, other trades want the space, and the nets are full of debris, offcuts and sometimes water, which makes them heavier and unpredictable to handle. The temptation to rush the last part of a job is strongest at exactly the point the protection is being taken away.
For cover purposes the point is narrow but useful: this is a full-shift exposure across the whole of a job rather than a single risky phase, which is part of why a short deferred period tends to suit the trade. The other part is simply that nothing arrives if you do not work.
If you stop
Followers cannot start until the nets are up, so a rigging crew short holds the whole trade sequence rather than just its own work. Main contractors therefore replace rather than wait, and a rigger off for a season often finds the netting firm has rebuilt its crews without them.
What A Household Is Left With In This Trade
Day-rate riggers have no death in service, because the netting firm or main contractor is a client rather than an employer.
Given that the defining risk of this trade is a fall from height, that absence matters more here than it would in a low-risk trade with the same employment status.
The sum worth covering is the straightforward one: the mortgage, any finance, and the years of income a household would need. It is worth doing the arithmetic rather than choosing a round number, because day rates in this trade are higher than people outside it assume.
A Lump Sum After A Fall You Survive
The event that changes everything here is usually sudden and survivable: a fall producing serious back, pelvic or limb injuries.
Someone in that position is frequently alive, permanently out of height work, and facing both a change of career and possibly adaptations at home. Income protection replaces earnings during the absence. It does not fund either of those.
A lump sum does, and it pays on diagnosis rather than after a deferred period, which matters when the immediate costs land first. Rigging experience moves into supervision, training, temporary works planning and inspection, each of which takes time to reach.
Common questions
Can a safety netting rigger get income protection?+
It is worth asking rather than assuming. Installing and removing fall protection at height is a genuine consideration and acceptance and terms are the insurer's decision, not ours. Describing the actual work usually gets a more sensible answer than calling it working at height.
Will it pay if I can work but not at height?+
That is what the definition decides, and it matters here. An own occupation policy asks whether you can do netting work; an any occupation policy asks whether you could do any suitable job, and ground work usually qualifies while paying far less.
Is strip-out riskier than installation?+
It is where the trade tends to get caught: the programme is tight, other trades want the space, and the nets are heavier with debris and water. It is worth describing the work as covering both ends of a job rather than just the install.
What deferred period suits day-rate netting?+
Usually a short one, because a cancelled day pays nothing and there is rarely sick pay behind you. The practical question is how many weeks of household outgoings your savings genuinely cover.
Does life cover matter more in this trade?+
It deserves real attention, because the defining risk is a fall and most riggers have no death in service. That is worth considering alongside income protection rather than afterwards.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.
- How income protection worksDeferred periods, claims and the policy mechanics.
- Income protection for steel erectorsThe trade that works above your nets.
- Income protection for scaffoldersThe other trade that builds its own protection.
- Income protection for rope access techniciansHeight work without a platform at all.