Scottish Provident reprices income protection rates

Scottish Provident, one of the UK’s leading protection providers, has announced extensive pricing changes to its income protection rates. The changes, which form the biggest overhaul of its income protection rates in recent years, are effective immediately.

Income protection provides the valuable security of covering a person’s income if they are unable to work due to sickness, accident or disability. This cover could become more essential given recent changes made to the qualifying criteria for Employment Support Allowance (previously Incapacity Benefit), meaning that only 16% of applications are being accepted, compared to the 83% previously.

Today’s repricing will help a great deal of people save costs further while protecting their incomes. For example, a male, non-smoker, aged 35, on a 30 year policy with Scottish Provident, whose policy included increasing rates, a deferred period of 26 weeks and a waiver of premium, would previously have paid £24.05 a month. As a result of the repricing, from today, that customer will now pay just £20.88 a saving of 13 per cent.

Susan Barclay, Head of Marketing, Scottish Provident, said: “Today’s changes emphasise Scottish Provident’s continued commitment to offering comprehensive, yet cost efficient income protection, which is of vital importance for people looking to protect themselves from losing their income as a result of their illness or disability.”

The Scottish Provident income protection plan not only gives its customers a regular income if they are unable to work due to sickness, accident or disability, but also includes premium payment benefit, meaning that Scottish Provident will pay the premiums throughout the period of a successful claim. Furthermore, any customer covered for death or earlier critical illness benefit or critical illness benefit of at least £25,000 and who has income protection under the same plan, has two additional benefits:

An immediate cash benefit, equal to the weekly equivalent value of the customer’s income protection benefit multiplied by the deferred period under their plan

Children’s income benefit, which is 25 per cent of the income protection benefit, up to a maximum of £5,000 each year for up to five years

Susan Barclay added: “Not only does today’s announcement mean that our customers are getting among the most attractive deals on the market in terms of safeguarding their futures, but the additional benefits available at no extra cost underline the fact that we are listening to our customers and the general market, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet.”