Parents who stay at home to care for children are an incredibly valuable resource to the family. According to research childcare in south east costs the best part of £30,000 so how would you cope if the carer is incapacitated? Can you afford the alternative?
Maybe your partner would be OK for a week or two taking time off work. Some unpaid or compassionate leave, personal days, unused holiday allowance but what then?
If you are lucky enough to live close to family or could parachute someone in to pick up the slack then great, but if not then you will need to start buying in some resources unless the earner is willing to take long term leave from work.
Often it seems to be straight financial decision – does my partner earn more than the cost of childcare and home help? If so the worker works on and help at home is hired but the cost is going to make a substantial difference to the family budget and could be devastating.
Not many people can take on a cost of £30,000 per annum without it hurting and many would not be able to sustain home and lifestyle.
There is insurance you can buy that kicks in if you get too ill to manage your home and family. It isn’t designed to cover short term stuff like flu or tummy upset. It is for the bigger longer-term blows that can take the family finances out completely.
- The insurance can be set up to kick in after a month or maybe two or three depending on how long you feel you could manage.
- There are limits to how much income per month you can have from this type of insurance, but it would at least help take the sting out of the cost of hiring help.
- You decide how long the benefits pays out for. You could set it to pay out for say 2, 5 or 10 years to give you a chance to move closer to family maybe or get the kids to a more manageable age or it can run right though to retirement age.
Obviously the bigger the total claim could be the more the premium will be so worth giving careful consideration to what your options would be under such circumstances is an important part of getting an affordable insurance that covers you for when the savings and generosity of friends and family are exhausted .
It surprises me how many people insure their mobile phones and freezer contents but don’t insure themselves and yet we are so very valuable to our families.
Women’s Wealth is happy to help you explore whether you need insurance cover, if you do how much cover and for how long and we can research the marketplace to find the best one for your circumstances.
Because we don’t take any commission you can be sure we will only recommend a policy if we genuinely believe you need it. Talk to us and get your financial planning exactly how you need it to be to serve you and your family to best effect.