Childcare these days can be costly, and with wages barely covering these costs it is often the case that mothers or fathers with young children will choose to stay at home forgoing their careers, as it just doesn’t seem to pay to work. Don’t worry I am not going to go into a political rant about the state of the country. Instead I want to evaluate something that is often overlooked, the value of said “stay at home” mum or dad.
It is often the case that when clients come in to talk about life insurance or income protection, there is a tendency to just focus on covering the breadwinner. This may seem sensible as if something happened to the main earner less money would be coming into the house, whereas you wouldn’t think it’d make much financial difference if something happened to the person with no income. However lets evaluate the typical job role of your stay at home parent; providing childcare for A young child everyday from nine to five (perhaps multiple children), as well as cleaning the house, laundry duties, cooking etc. If this parent was to fall ill or worse, who would pick up the slack?
Perhaps grandparents or other family members would help? But if not childcare everyday, five days a week, that’s going to set you back around £200 per week per child, over a year that’s going to cost around £10,400 (just based on one child). With that to pay you are probably then going to have to start doing the laundry and cooking yourself, as most family budgets wont stretch to a cleaner and personal chef. If the thought of mounting nursery bills and piles of dirty laundry are starting to frighten you don’t worry there is a solution.
When you come to sort out your life insurance and income protection make sure you protect both the breadwinner and house person. Many people are unaware that you can get income protection for a house person, but its true many providers are now offering this. Usual income protection policies pay out a monthly or weekly benefit upon the proposed becoming too ill to work, these can pay out until you get better, reach your selected retirement age or die. For a house person in order to qualify for the benefit a daily activities incapacity definition is used instead, so if the person insured cannot do things such as walking, lifting or using speech and vision, the benefit will be paid out.
It is prudent to review your finances regularly and especially in times where your circumstances have changed such as the birth of a new child. Independent financial advisers can review your needs and advise on the most suitable protection products for your family.
Sammy McCann BSc(Hons), Cert CII(MP)
27th August 2018