Income Protection for Steeplejacks
Steeplejacks work on structures that other trades are brought in to avoid.
Chimneys, spires, masts and towers, frequently Victorian, frequently in worse condition than they look from the ground, accessed by ladder, rope or temporary rigging that the steeplejack puts up themselves. The height is extreme and the thing you are attached to may be the thing that is failing.
Income protection pays a monthly amount while you cannot work, and in this trade the serious scenario is worth insuring properly rather than optimistically.
The short answer
Steeplejacking is work at heights where rescue is slow and the structure is often old, unstable or both. It is a small, specialist trade with no sick pay for the self-employed, and losing the ability to climb ends the career while leaving somebody fit for ordinary life. Income protection replaces a monthly amount while you cannot work.
What actually stops you working
- Falls from extreme height, where the consequence is rarely survivable injury
- Structural failure of the thing being worked on, which is often why you are there
- Rigging and anchor failures on old masonry with no reliable fixing points
- Being struck by falling masonry, tiles or ironwork dislodged above you
- Severe weather exposure, since the work is outdoors and exposed by definition
- Anything affecting balance, grip or vision, which ends climbing immediately
Sick pay, if you get any
Nothing for the self-employed. It is a small trade with few employers, so most steeplejacks work for themselves or for a specialist firm on a subcontract basis, and the work is project-based with nothing owing once it stops.
Why the definition of incapacity decides it
No trade on this site depends more completely on physical confidence at height. A steeplejack who has recovered from almost anything but will not climb again is entirely employable and finished in this work. An any occupation definition cannot see that distinction. Only a policy that asks whether you can do steeplejacking reflects what has actually been lost.
Rescue Is The Part Nobody Insures
Height is the obvious risk and it is not quite the thing that makes steeplejacking distinctive.
What makes it distinctive is how long it takes to get an injured person down from the top of a two hundred foot chimney. An incident that would be serious at ground level becomes something else entirely when recovery takes an hour and specialist equipment. This is why the rescue plan is treated as seriously as the access plan in this trade, and why outcomes can be worse than the fall itself would suggest.
For cover, the practical consequence is that the realistic bad scenario is a long, complicated recovery rather than six weeks in a cast. That is what the benefit period and any lump sum should be sized against.
The Structure Is The Risk, Not Just The Height
Most height trades work on things that are sound. Steeplejacks are usually there because something is not.
A chimney with spalled brickwork, a spire with failing iron cramps, a mast with corroded fixings: you are rigging off, and standing on, a structure whose condition is the reason for the visit. Anchor points have to be judged rather than assumed, and the judgement is made at the top by the person whose weight is on it.
That is a skill-dependent risk rather than a procedural one, and it is why experience matters so much in this trade and why a single misjudgement is so consequential. It is also why describing the work honestly when arranging cover matters more than compressing it into the word steeplejack.
If you stop
It is a specialist trade with few people in it, so a firm that loses one for a season brings in another from the same small pool. The work is also often seasonal and weather-dependent, so a lost summer is a lost year rather than a lost quarter.
A Small Trade With No Safety Net Behind It
Steeplejacking is skilled, well paid for the days worked, and leaves nothing to a family.
There is rarely a business to sell: the value is in the person's experience, tickets and nerve. Equipment is specialist and worth a fraction of its cost second hand. There is no employer benefit for the self-employed and no round of recurring customers.
So life cover carries everything, and given this is one of the highest-risk occupations on the site, arranging it early and properly is not a precaution so much as the basic plan.
The Day You Decide Not To Go Up Again
Plenty of steeplejacks stop because of something that would not stop anybody else working.
A seizure, a cardiac event, a diagnosis affecting balance or medication that causes dizziness: any of these end climbing permanently while leaving somebody well enough to work for decades. Monthly income replacement pays while you are unfit and typically stops when you are fit for some work, which here can be almost immediately.
A lump sum is what bridges that gap, funding the move to inspection, surveying, supervision or a different trade entirely. In a job this dependent on physical confidence it is arguably the more useful of the two covers.
Common questions
Can steeplejacks get income protection?+
Yes, though it is rated as the extreme-height specialist work it is, and insurers vary a great deal on it. That variation is the reason to go through a broker rather than one provider, because the same details can come back very differently. We cannot promise acceptance or say in advance where a given insurer will place this trade.
What makes steeplejacking different from other height work?+
Two things. The rescue time, because getting an injured person down from the top of a chimney takes an hour and specialist equipment, which can make outcomes worse than the fall itself suggests. And the structure, because steeplejacks are usually there precisely because something is failing, so anchor points have to be judged at the top rather than assumed.
What if I recover but will not climb again?+
That is the common ending in this trade and it is decided by the incapacity definition. Somebody who will not go up again is entirely employable and finished in this work, and an any occupation policy cannot see that distinction. A policy written on your own occupation asks whether you can do steeplejacking, which is the question your income depends on.
Do steeplejacks get sick pay?+
No, not if you are self-employed, and most are because it is a small trade with few employers. Work is project-based with nothing owing once it stops, and because it is also weather-dependent and seasonal, a lost summer can mean a lost year rather than a lost quarter. That is worth factoring into the benefit period.
Should I have a lump sum as well as monthly cover?+
In this trade it is worth looking at seriously rather than treating as optional. A seizure, a cardiac event or anything affecting balance ends climbing permanently while leaving you well enough to work for decades, and monthly cover typically stops once you are fit for some work. Capital funds the move into inspection, surveying or a different trade.
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 steel erectorsThe other trade that builds its own working platform.
- Income protection for roofersHeight, weather and no light duties.
- Critical illness coverA lump sum on diagnosis, and what it actually covers.
- Talk to an adviserDescribe the access methods you actually use.