Income Protection / IPSE Tax Cover - what's most worthwhile?

[BigLadFromBeeston666]

I have Relevant Life Insurance at the moment, helped set up by a broker (Drewberry Insurance), which seems sensible enough. However, now I'm debating whether Executive Income Protection might be worthwhile too.

Also after searching through the threads here, I saw that PerfectStorm and a handful of others have been investigated and really rate the IPSE Tax Cover for helping them through a tough tax time.

So just wanted a 'contractor take' on what insurance policies you have and which you feel are most worthwhile?

Relevant Life Insurance is a no brainer to me, as I have a family. But I struggle to justify other things like private health insurance which seems to have a lot of exclusions.

[malvolio]

Ignoring the lobbying and political activities of IPSE*, its Plus package offers a hell of a lot of cover for comparatively little cost. Jury service cover, client or agency (or umbrella) default cover and a degree of sick pay would instantly cover the cost of the membership if you ever need them, and the unqualified representation you get for any tax issues is a no brainer.

Income protection is a mare's nest at the best of times. For a jobbing contractor it's probably better to have a decent and accessible war chest and a decent pension plan.



* Some say.... that they have failed completely. Well IR35 is still there but that is more down to HMT ignorance and intransigence than lobbying and fact-finding by a host of people including IPSE. Things have been prevented, but it's hard to prove a negative, especially under Chatham House rules!

[eek]

* Some say.... that they have failed completely. Well IR35 is still there but that is more down to HMT ignorance and intransigence than lobbying and fact-finding by a host of people including IPSE. Things have been prevented, but it's hard to prove a negative, especially under Chatham House rules!

Nope.. It's down to Employer NI generating £70-100bn a year (can't be bothered to double check the latest figures) and a desire from the Treasury not to do anything, ever that risks that money.

[malvolio]

Nope.. It's down to Employer NI generating £70-100bn a year (can't be bothered to double check the latest figures) and a desire from the Treasury not to do anything, ever that risks that money.

Yes, I know that. Most of that tax is probably not actually owed of course under any rational tax regime, and it ignores the hidden cost of things like loss of mobility for work and the bulk of engineering work going offshore.

But that's not a good tagline

[eek]

Yes, I know that. Most of that tax is probably not actually owed of course under any rational tax regime, and it ignores the hidden cost of things like loss of mobility for work and the bulk of engineering work going offshore.

But that's not a good tagline

It needs to come from somewhere.

And when you are talking about that sort of money the other places you can extract it simply don't exist.

[ladymuck]

Meanwhile, back on topic...

I have IPSE Plus, for the variety of cover that's still a competitive price irrespective of the the discussion going on above.

I also have income replacement insurance, from Vitality. This would be a BIK if paid by my company so I pay it personally.

[eek]

Meanwhile, back on topic...

I have IPSE Plus, for the variety of cover that's still a competitive price irrespective of the the discussion going on above.

I also have income replacement insurance, from Vitality. This would be a BIK if paid by my company so I pay it personally.

Note: I didn't comment on what IPSE offers - if I was to do so I would point out that it's great for one off risks (agency failure, jury service (but note, not as a victim / witness)) and with the vouchers you can recover the costs...

For income protection the first thing you need is a decent war chest as with those executive income schemes you want a long lead time between the claim and payments kicking in to keep costs sane. Most people don't have such schemes so even looking at them raises flags at a lot of providers.

[BigLadFromBeeston666]

Thanks everyone. I may give IPSE a punt. There's talking about reclaiming the cost back via perks / vouchers? The IPSE website is quite vague and says "exclusive offers". Got any insight into how this translates into covering the cost of the membership fee?

[eek]

Thanks everyone. I may give IPSE a punt. There's talking about reclaiming the cost back via perks / vouchers? The IPSE website is quite vague and says "exclusive offers". Got any insight into how this translates into covering the cost of the membership fee?

Definitely a question for ladymuck who appears to be an expert on IPSE and Amex deals.

[ladymuck]

Definitely a question for ladymuck who appears to be an expert on IPSE and Amex deals.

Funny guy. I'm more of an Amex cashback chaser. I've never made full use of IPSE Perkbox but know that many people do use it sufficiently well to pretty much recoup their membership fee.

I can't remember how you set up your Perkbox account (it may be SSO) but you go here https://ipse.perkbox.com/welcome/login (you may need to log into IPSE first then find the link under View Benefits / Your Exclusive Discounts / IPSE Rewards). You essentially buy gift vouchers for, say Currys, when you need to buy something and you'll pay 7.5% less for that gift voucher.

Having just logged into Perkbox for the first time in months, I see the navigation is even worse than it used to be - they must have been taking tips from the IPSE web designers.