4 week wait for sick mothers’ payout
As Mothering Sunday approaches a little earlier this year, Defaqto has warned about the potential difficulties coping if a stay-at-home mum falls ill.
Under most homemaker’s cover (part of income protection) insurers would not pay out for as long as 4 weeks.
Defaqto Insight Analyst Ben Heffer has stated that many families have no plans in place to handle the situation should a stay-at-home mother fall ill or become disabled and be unable to look after the home and children.
Many consider only the breadwinner as contributing financially, but it is the case that stay-at-home mums do unpaid work worth around £18,500.
A number of insurers offer protection for homemakers, in case they fall ill/become disabled.
Heffer advises those taking out such protection to consider the amount of benefit on offer and the waiting period until a claim is paid out.
The guidance comes shortly after Defaqto reported that critical illness sales were holding up better than expected despite falling mortgage sales.
Category: Insurance News
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There is something very troubling here in the irony that taking care of a child is considered a social good worth government funding if the child is tended by a 3rd party childcare worker, but it is deemed a personal hobby if the child is tended at home. The funding when mom is sick is not a problem if the child already gets free care by government. Taxpayers already foot the bill. The problem is then a triple penalty for parents at home. First, they don’t get the funding moms who work outside the home get. Second, because their families pay tax, they end up paying for the childcare of someone else but the funds won’t go to their own kids. Third, if they want to have a rainy day fund for if mom gets sick, they have to pay for it out of pocket.
All along the way we see anti-women bias. Yes insurance companies are nice to help but they make a lot of money off this kindness. It would be much less of an insult to women’s care roles if government funded all care of children, per child, wherever the child was. Value the care role. It’s real work and it values society.