Income Protection for Welders

Most trades are ended by a joint. Welding is one of the few that is ended by a lung.

Arc eye heals. Burns heal. What accumulates is the fume, and the damage it does does not reverse. Add confined space work, where fume concentrates and oxygen does not, and the picture is a trade whose serious risks are invisible at the time.

Income protection pays monthly while you cannot work, and it does not distinguish between an injury on a Tuesday and an illness that took fifteen years to arrive.

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The short answer

Welding damages two things reliably: eyes in the short term and lungs in the long term. Welding fume is a recognised occupational cause of serious respiratory disease, which makes this one of the few trades where the thing most likely to stop you working is something you breathed years earlier. Income protection replaces a monthly amount while you cannot work, and it responds to illness exactly as it does to injury.

What actually stops you working

Respiratory disease from welding fume, which is the long-term risk that defines the trade
Eye damage, from arc eye in the short term to lasting problems with repeated exposure
Burns, including deep burns from spatter through clothing
Hearing loss from grinding and from working in fabrication shops
Back and shoulder problems from working in fixed awkward positions for hours
Confined space incidents, where the risk is the atmosphere rather than the welding

Sick pay, if you get any

None if you are self-employed, which much of site and contract welding is. Shop-based employed welders may have an occupational scheme, so it is worth knowing which you are before choosing how long to wait before cover starts.

Why the definition of incapacity decides it

Welding needs steady hands, reliable close vision and the ability to hold an awkward position. Lose any of them and the work goes, while the person remains able to do a great deal else. Because the likeliest cause here is respiratory rather than musculoskeletal, it is also worth understanding that somebody who cannot safely be around fume may be perfectly fit in every other setting, which is exactly the situation an own occupation definition is for.

The Risk You Cannot Feel

Welding is unusual on this site because the thing most likely to end the career gives no warning at the time it is happening.

Fume from welding is a recognised cause of serious lung disease, and the exposure that matters is the ordinary daily kind rather than any particular incident. Extraction helps and is frequently not used properly, especially on site, in confined spaces, and when a job is a quick one. Nothing hurts, nothing shows, and twenty years later somebody is short of breath walking upstairs.

Because income protection responds to illness as readily as to injury, it is the cover that answers this. It also means any existing respiratory symptom is worth declaring properly at application, since that is what determines whether a later claim is straightforward.

Confined Spaces Are A Different Job

Welding in a tank, a vessel or a trench is not the same trade as welding in a workshop, and it is worth describing accurately.

The fume concentrates, the oxygen can be displaced, access is restricted and rescue is slow. The incidents that happen in confined spaces are serious and often involve more than one person, because somebody goes in after the first casualty.

If this is part of your week, say so when you arrange cover rather than describing yourself simply as a welder. A policy that reflects the work you actually do is the one that behaves predictably if you ever need it.

If you stop

Contract and site welding is booked by the job, so an absence means the contract goes to another welder and the agency or main contractor uses them next time too. Coded work is worse, because the coding has to be kept current and a long gap can mean re-testing before you can be put back to work.

Coded Skills Do Not Transfer To A Family

A welder's value is in certification and experience, and neither of those is an asset anybody can inherit.

There is no round, no premises in most cases, and no business to sell. Coded tickets expire with the person. If the work was through a limited company it is likely to hold little beyond the last invoices. A family is left with the income gone and a workshop of equipment worth a fraction of its cost.

So life cover is sized against the household rather than against any notion of what the business is worth, because for most welders the honest answer to that second question is very little.

A Diagnosis That Means Never Welding Again

This trade has a particular version of a critical illness claim that is worth thinking about before choosing cover.

A serious respiratory diagnosis does not simply mean time off. It usually means never welding again, because continued exposure makes it worse. The person may be well enough to work for years afterwards, in something else, which is exactly the scenario monthly income replacement handles badly: it pays while you are unfit, and the problem here is that you are fit for everything except your trade.

A lump sum funds the change, whether that is retraining, moving into inspection or supervision, or clearing debt so a lower income works. For welders it is a genuinely useful purchase rather than an afterthought.

Common questions

Is welding fume really the main risk?+

It is the one most likely to end a career, yes. Welding fume is a recognised cause of serious lung disease, and the exposure that matters is the ordinary daily kind rather than any particular incident. Nothing hurts at the time, extraction is often not used properly on site or in confined spaces, and the consequence appears years later. Income protection responds to illness as readily as to injury.

Should I mention confined space work?+

Yes, and it should be described rather than left under the general heading of welding. Welding in a tank, vessel or trench is a different job: fume concentrates, oxygen can be displaced, access is restricted and rescue is slow. A policy that reflects the work you actually do is the one that behaves predictably if you ever need it.

Do self-employed welders get sick pay?+

No, and much of site and contract welding is self-employed. Shop-based employed welders may have an occupational scheme, so establish which you are before choosing a deferred period: with nothing behind you a shorter wait usually makes sense despite costing more, and with a scheme you can wait and pay less.

What happens to my coding if I am off for a long time?+

Coded work usually has to be kept current, and a long gap can mean re-testing before you can be put back on the tools. That is an administrative problem on top of a medical one and it is worth knowing about in advance. Income protection does not insure a coding, but replacing your income buys the time and money to deal with it rather than being forced back early.

Would an existing chest problem stop me getting cover?+

Not necessarily, though it will be asked about and may be excluded or loaded, and insurers vary in how they treat respiratory history in this trade. Declare it accurately: a condition disclosed at application has been considered and priced, while one appearing for the first time at claim becomes the centre of the investigation. A broker is useful precisely because the right insurer for a declared condition is rarely the cheapest.

Cover that often goes with this

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