Do You Have A Contingency Plan?

just wondering if any drivers out there that aren’t salaried have anything in place to pay/cover your earnings should you be off sick for a long period of time.
I am not looking at time off due to an accident at work or similar where you can claim compo,but something as simple as falling over at home & breaking a leg or an arm where you will be incapacitated for weeks & it’s your own doing.
reason I ask is,there is a driver at our company who has now been off for 9 weeks after he fell down the stairs at home & dislocated his shoulder & also caused a lot damage to his ligaments,so the injury is taking a long time to heal.
he is unable to drive as he cannot pull the curtains back on a trailer or climb in & out of the cab safely or without being in pain.
he is struggling financially now as he is only on govt statutory sick pay.
do you know how you would cope if you were off work so long?
I know when I was self employed I had a policy that paid me out £1000 per month if I was off sick due to injury/illness,but I paid £45 a month for it & it started after 2 weeks.
do you have anything in place?

After suffering a serious motorbike injury I was faced with the harsh realities of this. Luckily for me the ACU at the time paid out an insurance policy type thing, my Combined Insurance of America policy helped, and I had two guys working for me so all was not lost.

What it did teach me though was to be prepared in future, so to that end I figured how much I’d need to survive for six months of zero income (pretty much six months wages tbh) and I blagged overtime, didn’t take holidays and cut down on lots of things until I had the money in the bank. I then opened a fresh account, put that money in it, refused the chequebook and cut the card up so I couldn’t touch it.

Not ideal some may say, but it works for me.

The best plan is don`t spend every penny you earn, save a little for a rainy day
in my case I save around 25%

I don’t get sick pay and instead of paying into some insurance scheme i make sure i save a fair bit every month just in case the unexpected happens, these schemes are ok in principle but don’t always pay out straight away sometimes it’s after quite a few weeks.

bald bloke:
these schemes are ok in principle, but …

They are designed to screw you over, extract as much cash a month from you as possible. Then refuse to pay out just when you need it

peirre:
They are designed to screw you over, extract as much cash a month from you as possible. Then refuse to pay out just when you need it

Nail. Head. Hit.

I used to pay into a so-called “illness cover fund” which when I eventually got around to making a claim on after years of paying into it, I was told that “You get big money from day 5 onwards in hospital. The first four days you get nothing by way of it being the excess…”

Thing is, what I only learned too late, - how many ailments have you in hospital for five plus days?? (I was out in two - Concussion)
Even abdominal surgery will have you out in a week, and anyone in hospital more than the proverbial five days mentioned here, has got to be on a “home run” to not coming out at all! :open_mouth:

The policy of course is not designed to be of any real use. It’s a fiddle, and I fell for this one for over a decade before I realised only after making the claim. :blush: :frowning:

PROPER cover of this sort would only be “good value” therefore if:

(1) It pays out from day ONE of illness that results in hospitalisation longer than 48 hours (to be fair)
(2) The payment days recoverable are the entire length of time signed off medically sick - NO arguing the toss from ATOS quacks over-riding doctors who’ll slap down registrars, GP’s, and specialists alike…
(3) The payments are classed as “tax free lump sums” and are not income, so don’t get taxed, and therefore don’t muck up any other disability pensions/allowances one might otherwise qualify for when receiving a life-changing injury.
(4) Insurers offering such policies are heavily regulated, to keep the cowboys out of the market.
(5) Cover is not overpriced. Anyone can have a life-affecting accident at any time, regardless of their medical history. No penalties should be levvied
“Insurance offer Fraud” is increasingly common nowdays, with online commerce being what it is. :wink:

peirre:

bald bloke:
these schemes are ok in principle, but …

They are designed to screw you over, extract as much cash a month from you as possible. Then refuse to pay out just when you need it

And that’s why i pay into my own sickness scheme (my building society account). :wink:

Agency chap I know slipped on some water while in the back of the trailer shattering his leg. Was off for about 9 months.

I have an insurance policy through combined I think it is had it about 7 years basically pays a lump sum for broken Limbs and a certain amount per day if I’m signed off. Never used it, it’s like for me the winter generally goes quieter so I may do 20 hours a month less than the other 9 months off the year so just because I earn a good Wage in the summer doesn’t mean I go and ■■■■ it up the wall. I’m a saver any way tight as a ducks arse hate spending money. If I loose my job tomorrow I’m good for a fair few months. My motto is just because its there doesn’t mean it’s got to be spent. And regarding the ops work colleague 4 weeks ago I broke 2 ribs and my collarbone at work I had 3 days off the driving done a couple off days in the office and was back in the cab Monday. I’m still in agony now but if I was hard up and struggling no amount off pain would stop me moving a steering wheel and doing a bit off manual labour so don’t feel to sorry for him.

…[zb] I phone.

When I left skool, my Grandad told me… always keep 6 x your monthly wage in a separate bank account, so if anything happens you can live comfortably for 6 months without worrying, or longer if you cut back a bit. (pay the mortgage/rent, bills, electric/gas/water etc, loans, food on the table etc)

I’ve followed that advice since I got my first job at 17; luckily I’ve never had to touch the cash, but I do spend the interest it pays!!

I have what I call a “if the ■■■■ hits the fan fund” with 5k in it, bust my arm quite badly last year and had two months off, it came in handy

Dont know if i’m right,but have a Travel Injurence which is Worldwide and covers everything for a Year by traveling not longer as 90 day from Home back to Home.
Cost me £103.-/year and covers a Lot.

I took my insurance cover out with the fella who walks around the HGV area at Toddington and when I was in hospital for my eye operation I was paid £100 pound for being admitted to hospital and £25 for both the 2 nights I was in hospital. Obviously if you are in hospital for some time it is worth it.
Other than that I have no insurance cover for being off on long term sick and being at home. However Loyds TSB have asked me if I want to pay into their scheme, after reading some of the posts on here I’m having second thoughts.

Steve. Bank it, sit on it, keep it out of immediate reach! That’s all you need.

Is that bloke still operating in Toddington? I think his name was Brian if i remember right? Not seen him for ages

I think having a few months wages in a savings account is best I did have about 9 months worth but a personal life meltdown depleted this.
But building it back up.

JB:
Is that bloke still operating in Toddington? I think his name was Brian if i remember right? Not seen him for ages

I heard that he’s already left to ‘winter’ in his villa in St.Tropez. Apparently, he makes £millions from selling worthless bits of paper to gullible truck drivers.