But women could be set to turn the tide in future, ActiveQuote reports
The amount of men looking into income protection (IP) has reached a record high since the outbreak of Covid-19, according to protection insurance broker and comparison service ActiveQuote. More than two thirds (70%) of IP enquiries in April were from men – a 5% rise on the previous year and a record high for ActiveQuote.
Numbers visiting the site have continued to rise since March – when IP enquiries spiked following the Covid-19 outbreak – rather than fall away again as might be expected.
Despite there being a record number of men enquiring, women could be set to turn the tide in future, as the number of females aged 20 and under enquiring about IP in the same period was 20% higher than their male counterparts.
James Howell, Senior Product Development Manager at ActiveQuote, said:
“The silver lining here is that UK households appear to be taking income protection more seriously than ever either way, and not just as something to be sought out in emergency circumstances like the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The traditional mindset has always been that protecting a man’s income is somehow more important than a woman’s and this would certainly seem to be the case at the present time, as the number of male customers looking into IP reaches unprecedented levels.”
“With more women working, more taking the role of breadwinner and more launching their own businesses this is also a mindset which the insurance industry has long been working to change, however, and the current situation might be about to give us a helping hand,” James added.
“Not only is the number of younger people looking into IP on the rise generally, in the under 20s bracket women are actually outnumbering men by a fifth, giving rise to hopes that a whole new generation of consumer could be about to turn the tide on that convention in the not too distant future.”
There are four main types of income protection insurance – mortgage, redundancy, loan and accident and sickness cover – with each policy type designed to cover a range of general living costs in the event that the policyholder is unable to work for whatever reason.
Where enquiries about life insurance tend to be more evenly split, when it comes to IP the proportion of women looking into this kind of cover has conventionally remained much lower in the past than men.
James said:
“Like any insurance policy, the sooner a person puts income protection in place the more likely they are to reap the rewards and, as this situation has shown us, is something everyone should consider regardless of their gender, age or income.”
