Brits losing sleep over future health worries

Britons are losing sleep over their future health but many have not prioritised protecting themselves against the financial effects of illness, new research has found.

It also revealed that one in five (20%) have no contingency plan at all if they were unable to work due to sickness.

However, the most concerning finding for the industry may be that almost half (47%) of those who had appropriate cover in place have never reviewed this despite possible life changes.

According to the survey from Friends Life, two thirds (67%) of Britons lose sleep over their future health, but 49% do not prioritise protecting themselves against the financial consequences of ill health.

And some people may be leaving themselves even more vulnerable by planning to rely on family and friends or company sick pay.

More than one in ten (13%) claim they would rely on family or friends for financial support if they were too ill to work, but two thirds (64%) say they would not be able to afford to help others who came to them for money in the same circumstances.

While just under a third (31%) said that they would rely on company sick pay if they found themselves unable to work, a similar number of people confessed to not knowing how long their company would pay them for.

This is particularly prevalent within the younger generation where nearly half (46%) of 18 to 24-year-olds said they do not know how long their employer sick pay lasted.

There was also a common misconception around the cost of life insurance, with 57% of those surveyed believing £100,000 of life cover would cost them more than £11 per month, when it can be around half this cost.

The research also confirmed similar findings that more people would automatically take out mobile phone (9%) and pet (14%) insurance, than would take income protection (6%) and critical illness cover (10%).

Steve Casey, head of marketing and intermediary proposition development at Friends Life, said: "Many people are apparently relying on contingency plans to pay the bills if they are too ill to work without knowing if they are watertight.

"In these tough times it is vital that people ensure they have adequate protection in place, and that means making sure that the right things are being prioritised.

"It is a fact of life that we seem to prioritise insuring things like our mobile phone or our pet over insuring our income, but the consequences of us being unable to work for a prolonged period, for example because of illness, can be severe," he added.