If you're one of the 32.14 million people in work in the UK, earning an average weekly wage of around £505 and working an average 37 hours a week, you're probably grateful that you're taking home enough money to pay the mortgage or rent, other household bills and able to provide for your family each month.

It may feel like you are a machine – a money-printing machine - that's expected to make thousands of pounds a year, a machine that's supposed to continue doing its job for the next 20 years, without breaking down, being out of order or ‘going in for repairs’.

In a way, you are a machine - and this makes you a very valuable asset.

So, what if the machine (you) breaks down? Or it (you) is temporarily out of order? Have you ever stopped to consider how you would continue to make enough money to cover your bills and other outgoings?

Each year, nearly one million people in the UK are unable to work for a month or more because of sickness or accident. An ‘income shock’ like this could lead to both emotional and financial upheaval. While there are ways that people can protect themselves from the malfunction of their most valuable asset, we know that many people wouldn’t be able to cope with a sudden loss of income or be able to handle a personal financial crisis.

In fact, a study conducted by Aviva found that nearly half (45%) of families with dependent children would last less than a month if the main breadwinner lost their income. For those that did experience an unexpected loss of income, the recovery process took more than a year for almost one in four (22%) of families.

It won’t happen to me

No one likes to consider life’s nasty surprises and what troubles they may bring, but unfortunately, they could happen to any of us.

Calculations from leading insurer LV show a 30-year-old, female, non-smoker who wants to retire at 65, has a one in four chance of not being able to work for three months or more in their working life. This increases to around one in two when looking at the risk of being unable to work for two months or more.

Aviva found that more than one in four (27%) families have experienced a loss of income due to ill-health, serious illness or death in the family.

Ways to protect your most valuable asset

Aside from making sure you look after yourself, we believe insurance can play a vital role in helping people safeguard themselves and their loved ones against the financial and emotional effects of unexpected life shocks. The Association of British Insurers reported that last year almost half a billion pounds was paid to income protection claimants - over 28,000 households benefitted from having taken out this type of cover.

Income Protection is an insurance policy designed to provide people with financial security should they find themselves unable to work for a period of time due to an accident or sickness. Essentially it works when you can’t. While people may know that it pays a regular income to help replace some of their lost earnings, they may not appreciate some of the additional benefits of taking out a policy, including the provision of early-intervention, rehabilitation, and back-to-work support services.

There are several different policy options available to suit a variety of budgets. It’s also possible to tailor cover to protect specific debts or select a more specific term for a policy. To help make it easier for you to decide which policy is best for your needs, we can help. If you’d like to find out more, give us a call on 0800 612 8005 and we’ll talk you through your options. Ultimately, taking out insurance for your most valuable asset is a small price to pay for peace of mind knowing you’ll be financially resilient, should your machine suddenly stop working!