29% of parents with young children do not feel confident in their ability to cope financially if diagnosed with a critical illness, new findings from LV=’s Reaching Resilience report has revealed.
The second LV= Reaching Resilience report showed that parents are concerned about supporting their families if they were to experience a major health problem.
The report found that the average working adult supports three people with their income (including themselves), with 10% supporting five or more dependents.
A third of workers said that their family’s financial security would be largely impacted if they were injured or experienced a major health problem.
A life event such as a critical illness diagnosis could lead to several months out of work. This in turn could affect childcare commitments or the ability to pay monthly mortgage and rent payments on a reduced income.
Yet just one in eight people have income protection cover that they pay for themselves.
What’s more, one in five parents said they could manage less than one month without their income, while 15% said they would rely on loans/credit cards if unable to work for two months or more due to illness or injury.
5% of parents with young children reported to have had an injury that led to two months or more off work in the last three years, while 7% have had to take unpaid time out of work for an ill child in the last three years.
Mike Farrell, protection sales and marketing director at LV=, said: “Our latest Reaching Resilience research found that that many parents are feeling unprepared if they had to take time off work for health reasons.
“It is no surprise that parents are concerned about the wellbeing and happiness of their loved ones, yet some people will be unprepared for financial difficulty if they do not have the right financial safety net in place.”
He continued: “Conditions such as cancer, heart attack or a stroke can have a devastating financial and emotional impact on families.
“Features such as LV’s Enhanced Children’s Cover also offers parents who take out a policy to protect themselves the flexibility to also protect their children aged under 23 within our Life & Critical Illness products.
“We continue to support advisers with online tools like the LV= Risk Reality Calculator, which highlights protection risks and supports conversations with clients around their financial resilience to show how protection insurance can help them.”
