This is an extension to income protection policies and is designed to ‘keep the shop open’. When you get sick, there may be some ‘fixed costs’ of running your business that still have to be paid. Best example is rent – a landlord may be very sympathetic to a tenant’s illness, but still wants to collect the rent. Other examples are phone plans, lease payments and support staff. There have been occasions where much of a claimant’s income protection payment has been spent on such expenses, so that when they recover, they have a business to come back to.

If you would still have a lot of business expenses when you are struck down, consider attaching this cover to your income protection policy.