What is Eleos income insurance?

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It’s the best way of guaranteeing you can still pay your bills if you’re forced to stop working because of physical or mental illness or injury.

By making affordable monthly payments, you can buy yourself the security of knowing you’ll be compensated for your lost earnings.

What options do you have?

The policies we arrange are designed to give you plenty of choice in the type of cover you can buy. We want you to be in control.

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What the important words mean

When you take out your policy, you’ll choose how much money you’ll get each month if illness or injury stops you from working. We call these payments your benefits. The amount you can pick is usually capped, and the cap will be either 70% of what you earn before taxes or £33,600 a year, whichever is lower.
The length of time you want your protection to be in place. You might only want it for a couple of years or prefer it for life. You can keep it right up to your 70th birthday if that’s what suits you.
You can choose how long you want to be paid you when you claim: one year or two years. When you have an injury or illness, our underwriters will pay you for as long as it stops you from working, up until the end of your chosen payment period. This doesn’t stop you from making new claims in the future because your insurance will still be active.
These are the payments you make each month to keep your policy active.
We’ll ask you to choose this when you take out your policy. It’s a period during which you’re happy to wait between making a claim and starting to receive your benefits. It gives you time to use money from savings or other income before you need to rely on your policy. The longer you can wait, the lower your premiums will be. Our waiting periods are 1, 4, 8 and 13 weeks.
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How do you work out your income?

It’s simple: your income is everything you get paid for doing your job. You need to figure this out when you apply for cover because we use it to set the cap on your benefits.

If you’re an employee, it’s your annual salary plus any bonuses or extra payments.
If you’re self-employed, it’s the average of your net profits over the three years before you apply for cover.
If you’re a company director, it’s a mix of salary, benefits, special payments and company dividends.
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Are you eligible to buy income protection?

We want to make income protection available to as many people as possible, so if these descriptions apply to you, then you’re eligible:

You’re earning from your work as an employee, a self-employed person or a company director.
You’re not prevented from working by illness or injury when you take out your insurance.
You’re between the ages of 16 and 60 when you apply.
You’re a UK resident and you have been for at least 3 years.
You pay tax in the UK.
You have a UK bank or building society account.
You’re registered with a GP in the UK.
You don’t work in any of the small number of dangerous occupations we’ve listed in the policy document.
01
What are your main benefits?
02
How do you pay for your policy?
03
What do you need to know about claiming?
04
What about changing or cancelling?
05
What happens if?
01What are your main benefits?
What can you claim for?

If you have to stop work because you get injured or you fall ill, you can ask for money immediately. The work has to be what you normally do for a living, which we call your ’own occupation’.

Even if you can still do things that aren’t part of your job our underwriters can pay you. All that matters is that you can’t work.

What will you be paid?
Upon application, you can select your desired level of benefits, and once you have made a claim, that is what you will receive. Your benefit amount will remain the same, even if your income increases, but it will decrease if your income decreases.
How long will you be paid for?

This depends on whether you chose a one-year or two-year term. These are the points at which you’ll stop being paid - whichever happens first:

You come to the end of your chosen payment period
Your policy comes to an end
You’re able to start working again.
House persons benefit
If you’re covered you can still claim even if you’re unemployed, a house person or a student when you get injured or ill. You’ll get 50% of the benefits you’ve chosen. Because you’re not working we apply different rules. We need to confirm that your illness or injury makes it impossible for you to carry out simple, everyday activities.
Working Persons Benefit
You’ll be paid a proportion of your benefits even if you take on part-time work or find a new job after you fall ill or get injured. You’ll receive your chosen benefits minus any money you get from elsewhere, such as the alternative work, state benefits and other insurance policies.
Helping you return to work
You don’t just get paid when you can’t work; our underwriters will also fund you to get help from one of our approved providers of rehabilitation services.
Extra benefits
You’ll also be able to enjoy some valuable extras that will help you improve your physical and mental health. You can find out about these here on our Extra Benefits page.
02How do you pay for your policy?
Paying your premiums
You’ll set up a direct debit so that monthly payments can be taken directly from your bank account. Direct debits come with a guarantee from your bank that in the unlikely event of a mistake any errors will be corrected immediately.
How do we work out your premiums?
We look at your age, the level of benefits you want, the waiting period you choose and any other options you select.
Will your premiums change?
It will increase each year on the date you took out your policy. The older you get the more likely you are to claim so by raising your premiums we can keep our prices fair for everyone. We might also have to increase your premiums when things happen that we can’t control, like rising inflation. This doesn’t happen often and we’ll always give you plenty of warning.
Do you still pay premiums when we’re paying you?
When you make a claim and you start to get paid, we’ll put your regular premiums on hold. You won’t need to pay anything more to us until the payments to you have come to an end.
03What do you need to know about claiming?
How do you make a claim?

If you’re injured, or you get ill and have to stop work, tell us what’s happened as soon as you can. You should do this by getting in touch with our underwriters, Shepherds Friendly, by email, phone or post. If you’re entitled to claim, the next steps are straightforward.

First, you need to give our underwriters a medical certificate to confirm your illness or injury.

In the first seven days, you can send them one you’ve signed yourself.
After seven days, they’ll need a Med3 certificate signed by a healthcare professional.
Send a new Med3 every seven days during your claim.
Give our underwriters any extra information they ask for:
The details of the job you’ve had to stop doing
Proof of what you earn in your job

When you reach the end of your chosen waiting period, you’ll start getting your monthly payments straight into your bank account.

Let our underwriters know if anything about your illness, injury or employment changes. While you’re being paid they can also pay to help you recover and get back to work.

You’ll stop getting paid if:

You reach the end of your one-year or two-year payment period.
You can go back to work.
Your policy ends.
How will you be paid?
Your insurance makes up for your earnings, so you’ll be paid monthly, just like a salary, directly into your bank account.
Making more claims
You can claim more than once for the same illness or injury, as long as you haven’t gone back to work when medical advice told you not to.
You are entitled to make and additional clam that’s linked to the original condition up to 26 weeks after returning to work.
If you’ve reached the end of your payment period you’ll have to work for 12 months straight, in your own occupation, before you can claim again for the same illness or injury.
If your new claim is for a different illness or injury you’ll start being paid after the waiting period. Your benefits will be worked out according to what your income is at the time the new illness or injury stopped you from working.
Are there things that your policy doesn’t cover?
So we can keep the premiums low for everyone we can’t cover the most dangerous occupations or any health problems that you already had before you apply. These exclusions are the same for everyone.
When you take out your cover we’ll ask you a few questions about your health and lifestyle. Your answers might mean we have to exclude some other matters. Even so, it’s very important that you answer accurately otherwise you might not be covered at all.
What if you’re abroad?
You won’t automatically lose your cover if you decide to travel abroad. However, it’s important to take note of the following:
If you become incapacitated while residing in the United Kingdom, you must not leave for more than 30 consecutive days or a cumulative 90 days in each 12-month period to continue receiving benefits.
If you become incapacitated while abroad, you will be entitled to limited-duration benefits. The duration of benefits will depend on the location of your incapacitation:
If you become incapacitated in Europe, the United States of America or Australia, benefits will be paid for a maximum of 26 weeks.
If you become incapacitated in any other country, benefits will be paid for a maximum of 13 weeks.
It’s important to note that returning to the UK will not extend these periods.
Why might your payments stop?
A doctor says you’re fit to return to work.
Your illness or injury is no longer causing you to lose your income.
The term of your House Persons benefit ends.
Your plan ends or you die.
You’ve come to the end of your one-year or two-year payment term.
You’re still abroad in Europe, the USA or Australia for longer than 26 weeks after you had to stop working.
You’re still abroad anywhere else for longer than 13 weeks after you had to stop working.
You leave the UK for longer than 30 days in a row or for more than 90 days in total during a year.
04What about changing or cancelling?
Can you reduce your cover?
If your circumstances change it’s easy to reduce the amount you’ll be paid. Your premiums will go down as well.
Can you increase your cover?
Your policy comes with Guaranteed Insurability. This means when something big happens in your life (a life event) you can increase your premiums and your cover without having to make a new application. For example, you might get married or divorced, buy a house or have a baby.
If you want to do this you need to tell our underwriters within six months of the event. You’ll have to pay a higher premium based on your age when you ask for the increase in benefits.
For each life event you can increase your benefits by a maximum of 20%. The annual value of what you receive can rise by no more than £6,000 and you can’t increase it higher than the maximum benefits you are eligible for.
Can you pause your premiums?
Sometimes you might want to put your monthly payments to you on hold. We call this a career break and you can take one for a minimum of three months and a maximum of 24.
How can you cancel your policy?
If you want to cancel you can do so at any time. Even after you’ve signed up and paid you have choices. If you decide you don’t want to go ahead, just let us know within the first 30 days and you’ll get a full refund.
You can also cancel your policy after 30 days. The only difference is that we can’t refund any payments you’ve already made, but you won’t have to pay a penny more
05What happens if?
What if your circumstances change?
If anything changes, like your income or the details of your job, you need to tell our underwriters as soon as you can. You don’t need to update them on anything about your health.
What if you’ve been paid when you weren’t entitled?
In the unlikely event that you’ve had payments when you shouldn’t have, our underwriters do have the ability to recover that money from you. It’s always best to be accurate and honest about your circumstances so they won’t need to do this.
What if someone else was to blame for your illness or injury?
If your illness or injury was caused by someone else, let Shepherds Friendly know, and they’ll still pay your benefits. However, if you make a claim against someone else and get any money, you have to give back the same amount of money you’ve been paid within 21 days.
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Things you need to do and not do

We want to make income protection available to as many people as possible, so if these descriptions apply to you, then you’re eligible:

Don’t stop paying your premiums because if you do you won’t be entitled to benefits.
Remember to adjust your benefit level if your income goes up otherwise you may find it won’t meet your needs.
If your income goes down but you keep the same level of cover you might not get as much as you’re expecting.
Always bear in mind that if you cancel after the first 30 days, our underwriters can’t give back anything you’ve already paid.
Make sure you always answer our questions accurately or you might not be paid.

A few other things you should know

The policy you buy from us is underwritten by another company. That means they’re the ones who look at the risks, approve your application and give us the go-ahead to give you the policy.
You can rely on us to keep all your personal information safe and private. You can read the details of this here.
Everything we do is fully in line with the laws of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. If you want to know more you can read our legal pages here.
The payments made to replace your earnings are usually tax-free for people living in the UK according to the current laws and what the tax office (HMRC) usually allows.
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Understanding your policy

We’ve tried to explain all the details of your policy in clear and simple language. If you want to look at them in more depth then you can read the full policy document here.

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A bit about our partnership with Shepherd’s Friendly

Shepherd’s Friendly is the oldest mutual society in the UK. This is an organisation that’s a little like a club created to give financial protection to its members. The idea is an old one and it has been very successful in protecting individuals who fall on hard time.

Shepherd’s Friendly are the underwriters of Eleos Life’s insurance policies and play a vital role in giving you the benefits you’ll enjoy when you join us.

Your policy is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This means your money will be refunded if the underwriter, or anyone involved in looking after your policy, goes out of business. You’ll also get compensation for any other losses. FSCS is a safety net that gives you complete protection and peace of mind.