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Fido comes first: People insure their pet over themselves

Cherry Reynard
Written By:
Cherry Reynard
Posted:
Updated:
06/09/2017

Protecting yourself from chunky vets bills is undoubtedly important, but new research from Zurich has found that British adults are more likely to have pet insurance than income protection or critical illness cover.

Over nine million pets are insured, compared to 5.5m adults with critical illness cover, and almost 3m with individual income protection. The research showed that people are deterred by the price, and not understanding the benefits.

Individual protection insurance is designed to replace income if an individual cannot work because of accident, sickness or unemployment. Critical illness cover is designed to protect you if you have a serious illness that stops you from working.

However, nearly a third (30%) of Brits have life insurance policy to help those they leave behind – equating to an estimated 15 million people. Chris Atkinson from Zurich, said: “While we’re able to access some health support via the NHS for ourselves, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of illness or injury on our lifestyles and those of our families, including our pets…Having an income protection or critical illness plan in place ensures a financial cushion should the unexpected happen.”

Price (72%), transparency (63%) and the likelihood of paying out (58%) are the most important factors for Brits purchasing an insurance policy. Certainly, income protection and critical illness are both considerably more expensive than life insurance. According to MoneySupermarket, the cheapest policies that also cover unemployment start at around £50 per month for a 45 year old looking to replace £2000 of income, and that is with a 120 day ‘buffer period’. Extending these buffer periods can make cover cheaper.

People may have some protection from their company if they are employed, but this type of cover may be more important for the self-employed or small business owners.

The most popular types of insurance policies purchased:

  1. Home contents insurance – 70%
  2. Motor insurance – 68%
  3. Home buildings insurance – 57%
  4. Travel insurance – 38%
  5. Life Insurance – 30%
  6. Pet insurance – 18%
  7. Critical illness cover – 11%
  8. Income protection (individual policy) – 6%
  9. Income protection (via employer) – 5%