Fitness is part of the job
Firefighters are tested regularly to make sure they can work in breathing apparatus, carry casualties and climb ladders. An injury that affects your strength or cardiovascular fitness, or a condition such as a heart problem or diabetes, can take you off operational duties while you recover or are assessed.
Some services offer light duties, but not always for long, and an operational firefighter on light duties may lose out on some earnings such as overtime or allowances. A policy that judges you against your own occupation can pay when you cannot return to the fireground.
Injuries, heat and long-term health
The work involves heavy lifting, climbing, cutting people from wrecked vehicles and moving through unstable buildings in full kit. Back, shoulder and knee injuries are common. Burns, falls and exposure to smoke and contaminants also bring risks to long-term health that insurers ask about.
The mental side matters too. Firefighters attend fatal fires, road crashes and other traumatic incidents, sometimes several in one shift. Stress and post-traumatic stress can follow, and income protection covers these on the same terms as any illness, subject to your medical history.
- Back and joint injuries from heavy lifting
- Burns and heat stress
- Exposure to smoke and contaminants
- Trauma from serious incidents
Wholetime and on-call are different
Wholetime firefighters receive service sick pay that usually starts at full pay and reduces after a period, depending on your terms and service. On-call or retained firefighters are paid for their availability and the calls they attend, and many have a separate main job that brings in most of their income.
If you are on-call, check the sick pay in your main job too. If that main job is self-employed, you may have no sick pay at all, and an injury on a shout could stop both incomes at once. Income protection becomes even more important in that case.
Control room staff and fire safety officers work very different days from crews on the appliance. Insurers will ask which role you hold, and a non-operational job can change both the price and the claim test.
Death benefits and personal life insurance
Fire pension schemes include death in service benefits, and these can be a valuable support for families. They are tied to your service, though. If you leave the fire service, the benefit stops, and it may not match your mortgage or the needs of your children.
Personal life insurance gives you a fixed amount of cover that stays with you, whatever happens with your career or pension scheme. You can choose decreasing cover for a repayment mortgage or level cover for the family, or combine both.
How Hi Tomorrow builds cover for firefighters
We look at your service sick pay or your main job's benefits and help you set an income protection deferred period that fits. Insurers group occupations into risk classes, and we explain how each one would treat a firefighter and whether the claim test is own occupation.
We can set up life insurance next to your income protection and help you write the policy in trust. On-call crews with a second job get both roles set out clearly on the application, so the insurer sees the full picture. Cover is always subject to the insurer's underwriting.