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With the recession it would seem that virtually every day we read about a company announcing restructuring and redundancies. With so much uncertainty in the job market and so few vacancies, being made redundant can lead to difficult financial times for those who are unfortunately to lose their job.

However, workers that took steps to secure their financial future and that of their families by purchasing accident, sickness and redundancy insurance or income protection may have less to worry about. This because people who have taken out some sort of income protection insurance will be able to receive a monthly income if their policy has an unemployment benefit built into the policy.

What is unemployment insurance?
Unemployment insurance is an insurance that pays out a monthly income, usually paid one month in arrears, should the person who is insured be made redundant. Most of these types of policy only payout for none voluntary redundancy and will not payout if you are dismissed by your employer.

How much will it pay?
Typically unemployment insurance pays out to protect a mortgage or rent with many insurance companies restricting the maximum benefit to 130 percent of your current monthly rent or mortgage payment. Some providers offer unemployment cover as part of an income protection policy which allows you to have this form of cover for the same level of cover as your illness protection policy, this is typically 50 percent of your annual salary.

How much will unemployment insurance cost me?
With any form of insurance we find that as the number of claims increase the insurance company will increase their rates for the cover, and unemployment insurance is no exception. In recent months many people who have redundancy policies have received letters from their providers telling them that their premiums have increased, in some cases by over 50 percent. Currently an average rate for this form of cover is 2.75 per month for every 100 per month of cover, so for a monthly benefit of 500 the cover will cost 13.75 per month.

Where do I find the best unemployment cover?
There are many ways to find out more about unemployment insurance, there are many online price comparison sites that allow you to search the leading insurance companies for the best premium and you can read their terms and conditions. If you do use a price comparison site it is important to remember that they do not provide advice, so the onus is on you to read the insurance companies terms and conditions before you apply. Alternatively you can speak to an independent financial advisor you will be able to advise you of the best policy to suit you individual needs.Jason Haines is a protection and mortgage advisor at godirect.co.uk, one of the UK’s most trusted information site about personal finance. So if you are looking for a new mortgage check out the best mortgage rates online and see how much you can save, you could also save money on your mortgage payment protection insurance.

Do you have a job that will provide a regular payment each month in place of your wage should you become too ill to work for a period of time?

If you have then you are one of the very lucky ones, if not have you thought about taking out accident, sickness, redundancy?

This is a type of insurance cover that will provide a fixed lump sum each month which has matched the amount of the premiums you have paid during the term of your policy. These payments can be anything between 0 and 1500 and will be paid for up to 2 years should you be too ill to work.

Mortgage Payment Protection
If you have a mortgage you should consider taking out a form of mortgage protection in order to make sure that you can meet your repayments should something prevent you from working. One form of mortgage protection is accident, sickness, redundancy cover, which will pay out a fixed lump sum each month for up to a year.

The amount that you receive each month can be anything between 0 and 1500 each month. If you die or become disabled during the term of your plan it will not pay out a lump sum as this type of policy is just for sickness and redundancy.

Pros and cons of accident, sickness, and redundancy cover
Pros-
If you have taken out a mortgage after 1995 it is worth taking out accident, sickness, redundancy cover as it is highly unlikely that you will get any assistance from the state to pay your mortgage.

If you have a job that does not have sick pay or you are self employed accident, sickness, unemployment cover is a very good idea.

If you don’t have any other cover this is a good option for you, especially if you know that your mortgage payments would be a struggle if you were too ill to work.

Cons-
There are certain conditions that the cover will not pay out for such as riding on a motorcycle, normal pregnancy related illness, backache or stress that had been diagnosed before you took out cover or any dangerous sports.

There are more conditions that will not pay.

You will only receive payments for a limited time usually 1-2 years.

It can be expensive.

The cover is only for a particular debt such as your mortgage, so it will not cover food and households bills.

If this type of cover sounds like the best for you the next step is to get an accident, sickness, redundancy quote. Without a quote you will not have an idea of how much money could afford to pay in premiums in order to get a lump sum each month that would provide adequate cover until you were back at work.Jason Haines is a protection and mortgage advisor at godirect.co.uk, for details of the best mortgage payment protection try Go Direct. The online tools can help you find the best accident sickness and redundancy and compare the premiums on income protection insurance as well to protect your mortgage.

People in employment may want to cover themselves against possible redundancy and loss of income following revelations that a good percentage of their employers risk succumbing to the recession due to the way they operate.

Research from Scottish Widows has revealed that many businesses in the UK are not doing enough to shield themselves from the unexpected, which underscores the need for people to put in place their own protection mechanisms.

Such mechanisms include taking out products such as income protection insurance or accident sickness and unemployment cover, which can come in handy should a person lose their source of income in the event of a company going into administration.

According to the research, despite the fact that three in five UK businesses admit that they would not be able to survive if they were to lose a key employee, four in five (81 per cent) depend on such important persons.

More worryingly, 67 per cent of businesses do not have any key employee insured with life cover or critical illness protection, which could leave them badly exposed if the person was to be taken ill or die. These findings highlight the importance of people having their own fallback plans, which can guarantee some continuity in earnings.

There are now some providers of income protection and life insurance policies that offer unemployment cover as an add on benefit. An advisor at a leading online comparison site points out that although you must have a small amount of life cover with the policy if you do not require income protection cover that their premiums were still highly competitive.

Where can I find out more about unemployment cover?
Many online comparison websites allow you to compare premiums on the standard accident sickness and unemployment cover providers. However none of these sites currently have the facility to offer quotes on life insurance or income protection cover providers who offer unemployment as a rider benefit.

To obtain quotations on polices that offer unemployment benefit as a rider benefit you could also contact an independent financial advisor. Most financial advisors do not charge a fee and have access to all the major insurance companies. The will review your complete financial situation and make a recommendation to suit your circumstances and budget. With all financial advice you are not obliged to take the policy they recommend and you are free to shop around for a more competitive premium if you so wish.Jason Haines is a protection and mortgage advisor at godirect.co.uk, one of the UK’s most trusted information site about personal finance. The have details on the latest income protection cover and offer free independent income protection quotes with their new interactive quote system.