Seven out of every ten South Africans will experience at least one injury or illness in their lifetime that will prevent them from earning an income. In spite of this less than 50% of the people surveyed believe they will have a temporary injury in their working lifetimes and do not have any form of income protection or disability cover.

The question was posed “ What happens if you have no income for 3 months?” One in five said their house and assets would be in danger of repossession. One in seven would no longer be able to pay school fees. In the worst case scenario, one in seven business owners and self-employed respondents said they would lose their business without an income. In total, 33% of the respondents would experience catastrophic results such as losing their homes without an income for longer than 3 months.

50% of the people surveyed see life insurance as ‘death cover’. The result is that people are twice as likely to buy life cover over disability cover. What this means is that many people are uninsured because they don’t see the need for life insurance, and many have life cover, when what they actually need is income protection.

Source: FMI Disability Cover Study (2018)