August 2026
Most people can tell you roughly what they'd get if they lost their job. Very few can tell you what they'd get if they simply couldn't do it any more — a back that won't hold up, a cancer diagnosis, a breakdown.
The answer, for most Irish workers, is €254 a week.
Here is what actually happens
Statutory sick pay in Ireland is five days a year, paid at 70% of your wage and capped at €110 a day. Not five weeks. Five days. Some employers are far more generous — many are not, and plenty of people have never checked which kind they work for.
After that you're on State Illness Benefit: a maximum of €254 a week, with no payment at all for the first three days. It's taxable. And it stops after two years.
On a €50,000 salary, that's a 74% pay cut that lands in week two.
On a €50,000 salary — around the Irish average — that is a drop from €962 a week to €254. Your mortgage doesn't drop 74%. Neither does the créche bill, the car loan or the weekly shop.
Being single sucks
If you live with someone who earns, there's a shock absorber. It's a painful one, and it usually means they work more while you're ill, but the house keeps running.
If you're on your own, you are the shock absorber. There is no second income to lean on, nobody to cover the gap while you recover, and the bills are in your name alone. The State's €254 a week is the entire safety net.
This is why income protection is arguably more urgent for single people than for anyone else — and it's precisely the group least likely to have it, because protection gets sold as a family product. It isn't. It's a salary product.
And it's far more likely than dying
Life cover is the protection people buy first, usually because a bank made them. But look at what insurers actually pay out on. In 2025 Aviva Ireland paid income protection claims to around 2,300 customers — and life cover claims to 463.
Five times as many people needed their income replaced as needed a death benefit.
The age data makes the same point from another angle. At Irish Life, the average age of a death claim in 2025 was 68. The average age of an income protection claim was 48. Death mostly arrives after you've stopped earning. Illness arrives in the middle of your career.
And these are not brief absences. Aviva's average income protection claim runs for 7.8 years. More than half stay in payment beyond five years. Their longest running claim has been paid for 34 years, and their youngest claimant last year was 23.
The leading causes, across both insurers, are mental health, musculoskeletal problems and cancer — in other words, the ordinary things that happen to ordinary people in their forties.
So do the maths: 50%, 60% or 75%?
You cannot insure 100% of your income — no insurer would let you, because nobody would go back to work. Revenue caps income protection at 75% of gross salary, and crucially that ceiling includes any State benefit you receive.
| Working out the benefit — €50,000 salary | Amount |
|---|---|
| Revenue's ceiling: 75% of gross salary | €37,500 |
| Less State Illness Benefit (€254 × 52) | −€13,208 |
| Maximum benefit you can actually insure | €24,292 |
So on €50,000, the most you can insure is about €24,292 a year — and remember the benefit is taxed as income when it's paid. That is the ceiling, not a recommendation. You can choose less, and the premium falls accordingly.
The honest way to pick the number is not to start at 75% and work down. It's to work out what your household genuinely needs each month to stand still — mortgage or rent, bills, food, childcare, loans — and insure that. For some people it's 50% of salary. For others, with a big mortgage and no partner, only the maximum will do.
Worth holding in mind while you decide: at 7.8 years, an average claim on that €24,292 benefit pays out roughly €190,000.
Then: how long can you hold out?
The second lever is the deferred period — how long you wait before the policy starts paying. The options are typically 4, 8, 13, 26 or 52 weeks, and the longer you wait, the cheaper the cover.
This is where free money is routinely left on the table, because the right answer depends entirely on something most people have never checked: what does my employer actually pay?
Paying for cover during weeks your employer already covers is money wasted.
If your employer pays six months' full sick pay, buying a 4-week deferred period means paying a higher premium for five months of cover you will never claim. Match the deferred period to where your employer's support runs out and you buy exactly what you need.
Two cautions. First, check the policy wording rather than the office folklore — sick pay schemes are often discretionary, or scale with service. Second, if you change jobs, that generous scheme doesn't come with you. Your deferred period should still be reviewed.
The three levers, in one place
| Lever | Turn it down and... | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Benefit level | Premium falls | Less to live on |
| Deferred period | Premium falls | Longer on your own |
| Cover to age 60 not 68 | Premium falls | Gap before pension |
The bit almost everyone misses
Income protection is the only protection product in Ireland that qualifies for tax relief at your marginal rate. If you're a higher-rate taxpayer, Revenue effectively pays 40% of your premium.
Relief is not automatic on every arrangement — it has to be claimed or applied correctly.
That relief materially changes the affordability conversation, and it is the reason income protection is usually cheaper than people guess.
What to do
- Find out what your employer pays. In writing. It sets your deferred period and it's the single biggest lever on price.
- Work out your standstill number. What does the household need monthly, not what percentage sounds prudent.
- Check what you already have. Some employers provide group income protection. If yours does, you may need far less — or nothing.
- Don't assume you can't afford it. With marginal-rate relief and a sensible deferred period, it is usually cheaper than people guess.
Let's do the sum properly
We'll work out what you'd actually live on if you couldn't work, what your employer would cover, and what it would cost to fill the rest. Twenty minutes, and you'll know your number instead of guessing at it — particularly worth doing if you're the only earner in your household.
Book a Free ConsultationFigures correct at time of writing. Statutory sick pay is 5 days per year at 70% of pay, capped at €110 per day. Illness Benefit maximum personal rate is €254 per week for those with average weekly earnings of €300 or more, subject to PRSI conditions, with 3 waiting days and a maximum duration of 2 years (624 payment days) or 1 year (312 days) depending on contributions. Invalidity Pension (€259.50 per week in 2026) has separate medical and PRSI qualifying conditions. Claims statistics are as published by Aviva Ireland and Irish Life for 2025 and reflect those companies' own books of business; they are not market-wide incidence rates. The worked example uses a €50,000 salary and is illustrative only. Tax relief on income protection premiums is available at your marginal rate subject to Revenue conditions. Income protection policies contain definitions of incapacity, exclusions and underwriting requirements which vary by insurer. This article is for general information and does not constitute personal financial advice.