LV= Income Protection cover

Peace of mind if you're unable to work because of an illness or injury

LifeSearch

At LV= we offer Income Protection cover through our partner at LifeSearch, who also look at options from other providers across the market. This means you get the best recommendation that's right for you.

Get a quote from LifeSearchAre you an existing LV= customer

What's covered with LV=

Regular income payments

Receive ongoing payments of up to 60% of your income if illness or injury prevents you from working.

Rehabilitation support

Access support designed to help you recover and return to work.

Own Occupation cover

Covered if you're unable to do your usual job due to illness or injury.

Fracture cover included

Receive a lump sum payment for covered bone fractures.

Parent and child cover

Financial support if your child is diagnosed with a covered condition.

£1,500 benefit guarantee

Built-in protection if changes to your income affect your cover.

Why Choose LV= for Income Protection

Supporting you beyond your policy

Income Protection is about more than financial support. Depending on your circumstances, your policy may also include additional benefits and services designed to help you and your family.

Death benefit

A death benefit of up to £10,000. (We'll pay £5,000 if you die within four years of the policy start date, or £10,000 if you die four or more years after the policy starts).

The death benefit proceeds may form part of your estate which could be subject to inheritance tax.

The death benefit payments are fixed amounts and won't increase with inflation.

Back to work support

Our back to work support services can help support you as soon as you're unable to work to aid your recovery before your symptoms get worse.

Earlier intervention can help prevent you from needing to take prolonged periods of time off work – helping to improve wellbeing and morale.

Our back to work support services are usually capped at three times the monthly benefit for each claim you make.

Teachers' Sick Pay Guarantee

If you are a teacher and have chosen a 12 month waiting period, and when you become unable to work and your sick pay arrangements match those set out in one of the following:

The Conditions of Service for School Teachers in England and Wales (sometimes referred to as the ‘Burgundy Book’).
The Department of Education, Teachers Terms and Conditions for Northern Ireland.

Then we can pay out your monthly payments to fit alongside your sick pay arrangements.

More details on our sick pay guarantees, including eligibility, can be found in our policy conditions.

Features for doctors and surgeons

LV= Income Protection is designed around the specific needs of doctors and surgeons. If you are a doctor or surgeon, you will have own occupation cover if illness or injury prevents you from doing your own job. Specialist features include the NHS Sick Pay Guarantee and a £3,000 monthly benefit guarantee for eligible doctors and surgeons, helping provide greater financial certainty when income changes.

Doctors and surgeons can also take an approved sabbatical of up to two years for study, working abroad or developing new skills while retaining their own occupation cover. Overseas cover is also available, subject to policy terms, and there’s no HIV/AIDS exclusion.

Additional benefits include rehabilitation support, parent and child cover, fracture cover and access to LV= Doctor Services, including remote GP consultations, specialist second opinions, physiotherapy and psychological support.

More details can be found in our doctors and surgeons adviser brochure.

Waiver of premiums during unemployment

If you become unemployed through no fault of your own (We call this involuntary unemployment), you can claim for up to six months premiums to be paid by us. This means we’ll take care of those premiums for you, you don’t need to pay them and your insurance will stay in place. You can only claim for a maximum of six months premiums to be paid by us during the whole period that your policy lasts for, however the six months doesn’t have to be in one continuous period. There is an initial exclusion period for this benefit of 90 days, which means if you become unemployed within the first 90 days of your policy starting you cannot claim for any of your premiums that relate to that whole period of unemployment to be paid by us.

This is not included as standard but it can be added at an additional cost.

More information on this can be found in our policy conditions.

Member benefits

Being a member entitles you to access a range of benefits.

Depending on your policy, additional support services may be available to you as well as member benefits.

They’ve been designed for moments in life when you might need a little bit of extra support.

For more information visit our member benefits page.

Guaranteed increase options

There are options to increase the amount of cover following certain events such as salary increases, moving home or having a child. More information on these can be found in our policy conditions below.

Budget option

We also offer a Budget version which has all the same features as our standard Income Protection, aside from the fact it will pay out for a maximum of 12 or 24 months per claim, depending on the option chosen.

How our Income Protection works for you

Whether you rent, work for yourself or are considering cover, find out how our Income Protection can help protect your income and what you need to know about your cover.

Looking for flexibility in cover when your rental arrangements change?

Our Income Protection Insurance can be used to protect your monthly rent and living expenses if you can't work because of a long-term illness or accident. This gives you the financial reassurance that you’ll be able to continue to make your rent and other monthly payments if you were unable to work.

But that's not all. We know that if you're renting then your situation can change suddenly and without warning. So we've included options to help you change your cover without you needing to give us more health or medical information. This could be helpful if your rent changes or you decide to buy your home.

There are some limits to these options, such as maximum increase amounts and maximum ages. You can find out more about these limits in our Policy Conditions below.

Want to know what happens if your income fluctuates?

When working out your annual earned income, we’ll take into account the last 12 months income when working out the maximum benefit we can pay you.

However, we understand income can fluctuate, especially when you’re self-employed and as a result, there will be circumstances where we may consider averaging your income over a longer period of up to 36 months. This will need to be asked by you at the point of claim.

We'll check this when you claim and then take off other payments you may be getting, such as the payments from any other Income Protection Insurance, or accident and sickness policies that you may have. This is the maximum monthly claim amount we can pay you, although this is capped by the amount of cover you've chosen with your policy.

We talk about this in a bit more detail in our Policy Conditions below.

Are you eligible for our Income Protection policies?

To be eligible you must have been permanently living in the UK and have been registered with a UK Doctor for at least 2 years continuously before your policy starts.

You must be aged between 17 and 59.

Consider how much cover you need and the length of time you need the cover for (your policy must last for at least 5 years).

When your policy starts, you'll need to be employed, self-employed, or a homemaker. For homemakers, if we pay any single claim up to the claim limit the policy is then cancelled. If you're retired or unemployed (this includes claiming Jobseekers Allowance) we won't be able to offer you cover.

policy documents

Everything you need to understand our Income Protection

You can get this and other documents from us in Braille, large print or audio by contacting us

Income protection FAQs

Do you cover average income over more than 12 months?

What happens if my cover term has finished?

Do you take dividends as income?

Can my Income Protection policy help me return to work?

Is my Income Protection benefit tax-free?

See all FAQs

Important information

What's not covered with LV=

If you inaccurately state your income we may reduce what we can pay you at claim stage (we cover up to 60% of your income before tax).
If you've been unemployed for 31 days or more when you claim, we'll only pay out if you can't prepare a meal or do basic housework.
If you stop paying premiums, you won't get any money back and you'll no longer be covered.
We'll only pay your claim if you've been unable to work throughout the whole of your chosen waiting period. You need to wait for the full length of your waiting period before your claim will start to be paid to you.
In the event of a claim, we will deduct any continuing income and any payments from other accident and sickness cover type products from the maximum benefit payable.

The death benefit proceeds may form part of your estate which could be subject to inheritance tax.
If you choose level cover please bear in mind that the amount you're covered for won't go up in the future, so you'll be able to buy less with it in the future, compared to today.
We'll only pay for one fracture diagnosed within a 12-month period and certain fractures aren't covered.
Both the fracture cover and death benefit payments are fixed and won't increase with inflation.
When you come to claim, we'll base your claim on 60% of income in the 12 months before you claim, so it's important that you regularly check your cover especially if your income changes.