How Much Does Income Protection Insurance Cost?

Income protection insurance typically costs between £5 and £100 or more per month in the UK, with most healthy office-based workers in their 30s and 40s paying somewhere between £15 and £45 a month for a standard policy. Your own premium comes down to three things above all else: your age, your job, and how much monthly benefit you choose to insure. The younger you are and the lower-risk your occupation, the less you pay, because how income protection insurance works is built around the insurer's assessment of how likely you are to claim, and for how long.

• Typical range: £5 to £100+ per month, with most standard policies for healthy applicants sitting between £15 and £45 a month.
• Biggest cost drivers: age, occupation risk class, and the monthly benefit amount you choose to insure.
• Ways to cut the cost: extending your deferred period, insuring a lower percentage of income, or choosing reviewable rather than guaranteed premiums.

These figures are illustrative averages gathered across typical whole-of-market pricing for income protection insurance, not a quote for any specific insurer. Real premiums are only confirmed once an insurer has underwritten your application in full.

Premiums for income protection insurance rise steadily with age because the statistical likelihood of falling ill or being injured for a prolonged period increases the older you get. The table below shows indicative monthly premiums for a standard scenario: a non-smoking, Class 1 (office-based) applicant insuring £1,500 a month in benefit, with an 8-week deferred period and cover running to age 65. Notice the jump between age 50 and age 60 in particular: premiums roughly double over that decade for the same cover, reflecting a much higher chance of a long-term claim in your late 50s and early 60s. If you're in your 20s or early 30s, locking in a guaranteed premium now can be one of the cheapest long-term financial decisions you make, because your rate is fixed at the age you applied rather than recalculated every year. These figures are indicative only, based on typical rates gathered across leading UK income protection providers for the stated scenario. They're for illustration, not a guaranteed price, and we review them annually as market pricing shifts.

Six factors combine to set your final premium, and understanding each one helps explain why two people can insure the same amount of income for very different prices. Insurers price income protection by estimating how likely you are to claim, how long a claim might last, and how much they would have to pay out each month.

• Your age: the single biggest factor. Premiums for a 50-year-old are typically three to four times higher than for a 25-year-old insuring the same benefit.
• Your occupation and job risk: insurers group jobs into risk classes. A scaffolder or roofer pays significantly more than an accountant or teacher for identical cover, because manual and high-risk roles claim more often and for longer.
• Your health and smoker status: smokers typically pay 50% or more on top of a non-smoker rate, and existing health conditions can add loadings or exclusions. See how pre-existing conditions affect your premium for a full breakdown.
• How much cover you choose: most insurers cap benefit at 50-65% of gross income, and the higher the monthly amount you insure, the higher your premium, roughly in a straight line.
• Your deferred (waiting) period: the longer you're willing to wait before payments start, the lower your premium, because you carry more of the early-claim risk yourself.
• Policy type: guaranteed premiums cost more from day one but never rise beyond agreed inflation-linked increases, while reviewable premiums start cheaper but can be repriced by the insurer, usually every one to five years. Understanding the different types of income protection insurance available helps you weigh this trade-off before you buy.

Insurers place every occupation into a risk class, usually numbered 1 to 4, based on how physically demanding and how safety-critical the work is. This one factor alone can move your premium as much as a decade of ageing. The table below shows how the same £1,500 a month benefit, for a 40-year-old with an 8-week deferred period, changes in price purely because of job risk class. Some insurers decline Class 4 occupations altogether, such as roofers or offshore workers, or only offer cover through specialist niche providers, which is another reason to compare quotes across the whole market rather than approach a single insurer directly. If you're self-employed, your occupation class is assessed the same way, but insurers also look more closely at income verification. Read more on the cost of income protection for the self-employed for how this affects self-employed applicants specifically. Matching your exact job title to the right insurer's risk class matters too: two insurers can classify the same role differently, so a quote that looks expensive from one provider may look very different from another.

The deferred period, sometimes called the waiting period, is the length of time you must be off work before your income protection policy starts paying out. It's one of the most powerful, and most overlooked, levers for controlling your premium. The table below shows the same £1,500 a month benefit for a 40-year-old, Class 1 occupation, at four common deferred periods. The right deferred period usually matches how long your employer continues to pay you if you're off sick. If your contract guarantees full pay for three months, there's little point paying extra for a 4-week deferred period, since the policy would simply be paying you on top of your existing salary during that overlap. Matching your deferred period to your actual sick pay entitlement, rather than defaulting to the shortest option available, is one of the simplest ways to avoid overpaying for cover you may never use. Even a modest change, such as moving from a 4-week to a 13-week deferred period, can meaningfully lower your monthly outgoings without leaving you exposed during the period your employer would otherwise support you.

Short-term income protection pays out for a fixed period, typically one or two years per claim, while long-term (full) income protection can pay out all the way to your chosen retirement age if you remain unable to work. Because the insurer's maximum exposure is so much smaller with a capped benefit period, short-term policies are usually cheaper for the same monthly benefit. The saving comes with a real trade-off: if you're still unable to work once a 2-year short-term policy ends, your payments stop regardless of your circumstances, whereas a long-term policy keeps paying until you recover, retire, or the policy term ends. Short-term cover suits people who want a cheaper safety net for common, recoverable conditions, while long-term cover suits anyone who wants protection against a genuinely life-changing illness or injury. For a full breakdown of when each option makes sense, see our guide to short-term income protection cover.

You don't have to accept the first quote you're given. There are several genuine, underwriting-friendly ways to bring your premium down without leaving yourself dangerously underinsured.

• Extend your deferred period: matching it to any sick pay or savings buffer you already have can cut your premium by a third or more.
• Reduce your benefit percentage: insure the actual gap between your income and your outgoings, rather than the maximum amount an insurer will offer.
• Quit smoking and stay quit for 12 months: most insurers will re-rate you at non-smoker prices after a year smoke-free, which can meaningfully lower your premium.
• Choose reviewable premiums if budget is tight: they start lower than guaranteed premiums, though they can rise later, so weigh short-term saving against long-term certainty.
• Compare whole-of-market quotes: pricing for identical cover can vary by 30% or more between insurers depending on how each one weighs your specific occupation and health history.
• Avoid unnecessary guaranteed-premium loading if you're young and healthy: a reviewable premium may suit you better while your risk profile is at its lowest.
• Review your cover every few years: as your salary, mortgage and savings change, adjusting your benefit amount rather than leaving an old policy running unchecked can stop you paying for cover you no longer need.

For most employed and self-employed workers, yes, and the numbers make the case better than a general reassurance ever could. Statutory Sick Pay for the 2026/27 tax year is £123.25 a week, or 80% of your average earnings if that figure is lower, and it's now paid from your first full day off sick rather than after a three-day wait. For someone used to earning £2,500 a month take-home, that still leaves a monthly income gap of well over £1,700 once Statutory Sick Pay is factored in, or the full amount immediately if you're self-employed with no employer sick pay at all.

Claims data backs up the value case too. The Association of British Insurers reports that 97.9% of new individual income protection claims were paid in 2024, a rate that has held at or above that level for the past decade, with the average individual claim paying out around £10,000. Musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain, not cancer or heart disease, are the single biggest cause of claims, accounting for around a third of payouts, which shows how often income protection supports common, everyday health setbacks rather than only rare catastrophic illness. The FCA's 2024 Financial Lives Survey found that 54% of UK adults hold no protection insurance at all, meaning most people are relying entirely on savings or Statutory Sick Pay if they're signed off work long-term. Weighed against a typical premium of £15 to £45 a month, replacing a four-figure monthly income gap is, for most budgets, worth the cost. If you're still weighing it up against other protection products, our comparison of income protection vs critical illness insurance explains how the two work together rather than as alternatives.

Every figure on this page is an illustration, not a quote. Your real premium depends on full medical underwriting, your exact occupation, your smoker status, and the specific insurer's own pricing model, all of which can only be confirmed once you apply. The fastest way to see an accurate number is to compare real quotes across the whole market rather than approach a single insurer directly, since pricing for the same cover can vary significantly between providers.

Money Saving Advisors compares income protection quotes from leading UK providers and can talk you through deferred periods, benefit levels, and occupation classes so you insure the right amount rather than the most expensive amount. Start by using our tool to calculate how much cover you need before you compare prices. Whether you're buying your first policy or reviewing cover you've held for years, getting your numbers checked against current whole-of-market pricing costs nothing and often reveals a cheaper option than the one you started with.