Income Protection for Vehicle Mechanics

Mechanics get hurt in small ways constantly and in serious ways occasionally, and the serious ones are rarely what people expect.

Hands are in tight spaces next to hot metal and sharp edges all day. Backs lean over wings and under dashboards. The heavy lifting is gearboxes and wheels, usually at an awkward angle. And a surprising amount of the real risk is chemical rather than physical.

Income protection pays monthly while you cannot work. For anybody with a unit and a lease, the sum needs to reflect that the business keeps spending.

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The short answer

A mechanic's hands and back take the damage, and anybody running their own unit has overheads that continue whether the ramps are busy or empty. Income protection replaces a monthly amount while you cannot work, and for a self-employed mechanic the figure usually needs to cover the workshop rent as well as the household, because stopping work does not stop the lease.

What actually stops you working

Back injuries from lifting wheels, gearboxes and leaning over engine bays
Hand and wrist injuries, including crush injuries and lasting tendon damage
Shoulder problems from working overhead under vehicles on ramps
Burns and eye injuries from hot components, batteries and fluids
Respiratory and skin problems from solvents, brake dust and exhaust fumes
Hearing loss from air tools and grinders used daily in an enclosed space

Sick pay, if you get any

None if you are self-employed or running your own garage. The additional problem is that the unit, the lease, the diagnostic subscriptions and any finance on equipment all continue while nothing is coming in, so the cost of being off is higher than the lost income alone.

Why the definition of incapacity decides it

A mechanic with a damaged hand or back can do plenty of jobs that do not involve lying under a car or torquing a wheel. That is why the definition matters: an any occupation policy sees somebody capable of work, an own occupation policy asks whether you can do vehicle repair. In a trade this dependent on hands, it is the clause that decides whether the cover is worth having.

The Lease Does Not Care That You Are Ill

This is what separates a mechanic with a unit from most other trades on this list, and it is routinely left out of the sums.

Rent on the unit, business rates, the finance on a ramp or a diagnostic machine, software subscriptions, insurance: all of it continues while the shutters are down. A self-employed trade with a van simply stops spending when it stops earning. A garage keeps spending at close to full rate.

So the monthly benefit should be worked out from the household costs plus the standing costs of keeping the business alive, rather than from drawings alone. That is usually a noticeably bigger figure, and it is better to discover that when arranging cover than when claiming on it.

What You Breathe In A Workshop

Mechanics think about crushed fingers and rarely think about the chemical side, which is the part most likely to cause a long-term problem.

Solvents and brake cleaner on skin all day, exhaust fumes in a unit with the door half shut in winter, dust from brakes and clutches on older vehicles, and oils that cause dermatitis. None of it is dramatic and all of it accumulates, and skin conditions bad enough to stop somebody working with their hands are not unusual in this trade.

Income protection responds to illness as well as injury, so these are covered causes. It does mean declaring any existing skin or breathing condition accurately when you apply.

If you stop

Customers with a car off the road cannot wait, so they go elsewhere and frequently stay there, because a garage relationship is built on trust and convenience. If you have a unit, cars already in bits on the ramps become somebody else's problem to finish or to move.

A Garage Might Be Worth Something, A Mobile Mechanic Is Not

What a mechanic leaves behind depends almost entirely on whether there is a unit with a name on it.

An established garage with a customer base, a lease and equipment has a genuine value that could be sold, which makes life cover partly about buying the family time to sell it properly rather than accept whatever is offered in a hurry. A mobile mechanic has a van, some tools and a phone full of customers who will call somebody else.

Either way the income stops at once, and any finance on equipment or the unit does not. Life cover should clear the business debts as well as the mortgage, which is a calculation worth doing rather than estimating.

A Lump Sum Pays Somebody To Turn The Spanners

A mechanic who owns a garage has an option a mobile mechanic does not, and a lump sum is what makes it possible.

A serious diagnosis need not close a workshop if there is money to employ a technician for a year while you run the business, book the work and deal with customers. Without capital that is not an option, and the unit closes while the lease runs on.

That is a genuinely different purpose from replacing income month by month. For a garage owner the two covers do different jobs, and the lump sum is often the one that decides whether the business survives.

Common questions

Does my garage rent get covered if I cannot work?+

Income protection pays you a monthly benefit rather than paying business bills directly, but the benefit can be sized with those costs in mind. That matters here more than in most trades, because the unit, the rates, the finance on a ramp and the diagnostic subscriptions all continue while the shutters are down. Work the figure out from household costs plus the standing costs of keeping the business alive.

Do self-employed mechanics get sick pay?+

No. A mobile mechanic simply stops earning; somebody with a unit stops earning and keeps spending at close to full rate. That difference is the thing most often left out of the sums, and it usually means the right benefit is noticeably larger than drawings alone would suggest.

What usually stops a mechanic working?+

Hands and backs. Hands are in tight spaces beside hot metal and sharp edges all day, which produces crush injuries and lasting tendon damage, and backs go from lifting wheels and gearboxes and leaning over engine bays. The quieter risk is chemical: solvents, brake dust and exhaust fumes cause skin and respiratory conditions that are not unusual in this trade.

Is dermatitis from solvents covered?+

Income protection responds to whether you can work rather than to a particular diagnosis, so a skin condition severe enough to stop you working with your hands would be treated like any other medical cause. It is common in this trade and worth declaring if you already have it, because that is what determines whether a later claim is straightforward.

Could a lump sum keep my garage open?+

That is the useful thing it can do, and it is specific to having a unit. Capital can employ a technician for a year while you run the business, book work and deal with customers, which a monthly income replacement is not designed to fund. For a garage owner the two covers do genuinely different jobs, and the lump sum is often the one that decides whether the business survives.

Cover that often goes with this

The gaps we most often find sitting next to this one.