Income Protection for Scaffolders
Scaffolders are the only people on site who do the heavy lifting and the working at height at the same time, for the whole shift.
Tubes and boards go up by hand, hour after hour, often from an awkward stance on a lift you have just built. The job is physical in a way that is easy to underestimate from the ground, and the damage it does is cumulative rather than dramatic.
Income protection pays monthly while you cannot work. For a scaffolder the thing to understand is that the career-ending problem is usually a joint rather than an accident.
The short answer
Scaffolding is heavy lifting done at height for an entire shift, so the injuries that stop it are backs, shoulders and knees far more often than falls. A self-employed scaffolder has no sick pay, and because gangs work in threes and fours, being off affects the money of the people you work with as well as your own. Income protection replaces a monthly amount while you cannot work.
What actually stops you working
- Back injuries from lifting tube and boards all day, which is the most common cause by far
- Shoulder damage from passing material upwards, repeatedly, above head height
- Knee problems from climbing and standing on steel all day
- Hand and finger injuries from fittings, couplers and dropped tube
- Falls, which are less common than people assume but serious when they happen
- Anything affecting balance or grip, which rules out working on a lift immediately
Sick pay, if you get any
There is none if you are self-employed, which most scaffolders are. If you are employed by a scaffolding firm you may get statutory sick pay, which is a fixed weekly amount well below what the job pays and runs for a limited period, so the gap between that and your actual income is the thing to insure.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
A scaffolder with a wrecked shoulder can do plenty of jobs. They cannot pass a tube up to the next lift, which is the job. An any occupation definition measures the first of those and pays nothing; an own occupation definition measures the second. Given that shoulders and backs are what end this trade rather than catastrophic injury, the definition is doing most of the work in a scaffolder's policy.
The Thing That Ends Scaffolding Is A Shoulder, Not A Fall
Everybody who thinks about scaffolding thinks about falling. The people in the trade know it is usually the slow damage that finishes them.
Passing tube above head height, thousands of times a year, wears shoulders out. Standing and climbing on steel wears knees. Lifting boards wears backs. None of it generates an accident report, and all of it ends up with a scan and a consultant explaining that the joint is not going to take another ten years of this.
That matters for insurance because it is a gradual, degenerative claim rather than a sudden one. Those claims get looked at more carefully, and what was declared at the start matters more. If your shoulder already clicks, say so when you apply rather than hoping it settles.
Your Absence Takes Money Off The Gang
Scaffolding is one of the few trades where being off work has an immediate financial effect on other people, and that shapes what happens next.
A four-man gang that loses a man either works unsafely, works slower, or brings somebody else in. In practice they bring somebody else in, because the job is priced and the programme does not move. That person is now in your spot, and when you come back fit three months later the gang may well be working perfectly fine without you.
Which is an argument for arranging enough benefit, for long enough, to cover rebuilding your position rather than just the medical recovery. Being fit and having nowhere to turn up are different problems and only one of them heals.
If you stop
A gang cannot work a man down. Three scaffolders cannot do a four-man lift safely, so your absence takes money off the people you work with as well as yourself, and the gang will usually have to replace you rather than wait. Getting your place back when you are fit is not automatic.
Common questions
Do scaffolders get sick pay?+
Self-employed scaffolders get nothing, and most of the trade is self-employed. If you are employed by a scaffolding firm you may get statutory sick pay, which is a fixed weekly amount well below scaffolding money and only runs for a limited period. Either way there is a gap between what arrives and what you actually earn, and that gap is what income protection is for.
What usually stops a scaffolder working?+
Joints rather than accidents. Shoulders go from passing tube above head height thousands of times a year, backs from lifting boards, knees from climbing and standing on steel. Falls happen and are serious, but the thing that ends most scaffolding careers is wear. That matters at application, because gradual problems are assessed more carefully than sudden ones and what you declared at the start carries weight.
Can I get cover if I already have a bad back or shoulder?+
Often yes, though it may be excluded or the premium loaded, and insurers differ from one another on this more than you would expect. Declare it properly: a back disclosed at application is one that has been priced, while one that appears for the first time in your medical records at claim becomes the centre of the investigation. A broker is useful here precisely because the right insurer for a declared injury is not the same as the cheapest one on a comparison table.
Does it matter that I work at height?+
Insurers ask about it, and about what sort of scaffolding you do, whether you hold a CISRS card and whether you work on industrial sites, refineries or rail. Working at height is part of the job and not a barrier to cover, but it is one of the things that gets priced, and answering accurately matters more than answering optimistically. An answer that does not match how you really work is examined at claim.
How much income protection should a scaffolder have?+
Enough to cover the household, for long enough to get back into a gang rather than just back on your feet. Scaffolding is one of the few trades where your absence costs your workmates money too, so a gang will usually replace you rather than wait, and your spot may not be there when you are fit. When you work out the benefit period, allow for rebuilding the position as well as recovering from the injury.
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 roofersThe other trade that lives at height.
- Income protection for bricklayersLifting all day, with the same joints giving out.
- Critical illness coverA lump sum on diagnosis, which works differently.
- Talk to an adviserTell us about any old injuries and we will place it properly.