Income Protection for Shopfitters
The carpentry in shopfitting is not unusual. The circumstances are.
A retail unit opens on a date fixed by a lease and a marketing campaign, so the fit-out happens in whatever time is left, which generally means nights and weekends. Several trades are in the same unit simultaneously because there is no time to sequence them properly, and most of the gang is living in a hotel a long way from home.
Income protection pays a monthly amount while you cannot work. For a shopfitter the first question is whether anything at all sits behind the day rate.
The short answer
Shopfitting is defined by the deadline rather than the craft. A unit has a handover date that cannot move, so the work happens overnight and through weekends, usually away from home, with several trades working in the same small space at once. Fatigue, that congestion and the pace are what drive the injuries, and most shopfitters are self-employed with no sick pay.
What actually stops you working
- Back and shoulder injuries from handling shopfront glass, counters, display units and fixtures in confined units
- Falls from steps, podiums and towers, often working at height overnight with limited lighting
- Cuts and hand injuries from sheet materials, glass and power tools used at pace
- Injuries caused by working alongside other trades in the same space, including being struck by materials and plant
- Chronic fatigue and sleep disorders from sustained night work and rotating between nights and days
- Knee and hip problems from kneeling on hard floors fitting out at low level
Sick pay, if you get any
Usually none. Shopfitting runs substantially on self-employed day rate labour moving between projects, which means no occupational sick pay and no statutory sick pay. Those employed directly by a shopfitting contractor may have occupational sick pay, which is worth confirming. Van finance and tool costs continue through an absence either way.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
The clause matters because the job needs full physical capability at pace. A shopfitter with a repaired shoulder or a bad back can do a range of lighter work, which an any occupation definition will treat as fitness for employment. An own occupation definition asks whether you can do shopfitting, which means handling heavy fixtures in a confined unit against a handover date.
The Handover Date Is The Hazard
Almost everything distinctive about this trade's risk comes from one fact: the shop opens when it opens.
A lease is running, a marketing launch is booked, and the unit has to be trading on the day. If the programme slips, the remaining time compresses rather than the date moving, so the final week is long nights with more trades in the unit than it can sensibly hold. People are tired, the space is congested, and the work is still physical.
That is a mechanism for exactly the injuries in the list above, and it is why they cluster at the end of projects. It also means the risk is not evenly spread across a shopfitter's year: the exposure concentrates into the final push of each job.
Working Away Makes The Money Look Better Than It Is
Shopfitting pays reasonably on a day rate and involves living away from home for much of the year, and that combination distorts the financial picture in a way worth noticing.
Part of what looks like income is covering hotels, food and travel. What actually reaches the household is less than the headline figure, and when work is quiet between projects there are no day rates at all. So the amount worth protecting is not the day rate multiplied by a full year, it is what the household reliably receives across a year including the gaps.
Getting that figure right matters more here than in a salaried job, because an over-stated income means paying for cover that could not be paid out in full, and an under-stated one leaves a gap. It is worth going through properly rather than estimating, and worth revisiting if you move between contractors or stop travelling.
If you stop
The gang carries on and the handover date does not move, so your place is filled within a day and the engagement simply ends. There is no job held open and no notice. Getting back onto comparable work after a long absence depends on who is fitting out at the time and whether the contacts that got you the last job are still placing people.
Nothing From Work, And A Lot Of Travelling
Self-employed shopfitters have no death in service, so whatever a household would be left with is whatever has been arranged personally.
Worth noting in this trade specifically: a large part of the year is spent driving long distances to and from sites, often tired after night shifts. That is a genuine exposure and it is a reason the cover matters rather than a reason to worry about it.
Where a van and tools are financed, that debt generally passes to the estate. The figure worth arranging is the household's actual needs plus enough to clear those agreements.
Capital For Work That Does Not Involve Nights
The realistic ending is a back or a shoulder that will not take heavy fixtures at pace, or simply reaching an age where sustained night work and living in hotels is no longer viable.
Both leave somebody employable and no longer able to do this version of the work. Income protection pays while you cannot work and is not designed for a permanent change in the kind of work you do.
A lump sum funds the move: site supervision, estimating, local joinery work at lower rates, or clearing enough mortgage that a steadier and less well paid job becomes workable. For a trade built on being willing to travel and work nights, having capital when that stops being possible is the practical answer.
If You Supply A Gang
Plenty of shopfitters move from working in a gang to supplying one, which changes what is exposed.
At that point there are people relying on the work, a relationship with a main contractor who expects labour on site on specific dates, and usually you still working on the tools as well as organising. An injury removes the fitter and the manager at once, and a gang that cannot turn up on a fit-out gets replaced for the next one too.
Cover can be arranged against the business's fixed costs as well as your personal income. Where particular individuals hold the tickets or the skills that win you the work, cover on a key person is worth considering, arranged by and paid to the business.
Common questions
I am on day rates. What do I get if I am injured?+
Nothing by way of sick pay, and no statutory sick pay either since that is for employees, while van and tool finance continues. The engagement usually ends within a day because the handover date does not move. That combination usually means a shorter deferred period makes sense.
How should my income be worked out?+
On what the household reliably receives across a full year including gaps between projects, not the day rate multiplied by fifty-two. Part of a shopfitting day rate also covers hotels and travel, so the headline figure overstates what actually reaches home. Worth going through properly.
Does night work affect my cover?+
Tell us your pattern, because what the job involves is part of the picture and sustained night work is relevant to it. We would not guess at how any particular insurer treats it; what we can do is go through your situation and tell you what is available to you.
Is this different from cover for a carpenter?+
The craft overlaps and the circumstances do not. Shopfitting is night work to an immovable handover date, in a congested unit with several trades at once, usually away from home. The injuries cluster at the end of projects for exactly that reason, which a local joinery job does not replicate.
Can I cover my van and tools?+
It is worth going through, because that finance continues whether or not you are working and is often the largest fixed cost after housing. Insuring personal income alone can mean the benefit arrives and is immediately absorbed.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.
Working for yourself?
Income protection covers your own earnings. It does not cover what the business owes other people, so if you work for yourself you probably need public liability and tools cover as well. That side is arranged by CoverTrade. Business insurance for shopfitters.