Paid by the hour, with no sick days
Private tutoring offers flexibility, but every cancelled session is lost income. If you are ill for a week, you might reschedule. If you are ill for months, students find another tutor before their exams, and rebuilding your diary can take a full school year.
Tutors who work through agencies or platforms are usually still self-employed, so statutory sick pay does not apply. The platform takes its cut when you teach and pays nothing when you cannot, which leaves your savings as the only buffer.
Peaks and quiet months
Demand for tutoring often rises in the months before exams and drops during school holidays. That makes your income uneven across the year. Insurers usually look at your annual profit from tax returns, which smooths out the peaks and troughs into one figure.
If you combine tutoring with other work, such as part-time teaching or exam marking, tell the insurer about all of it. Your total declared earnings set the maximum benefit, and the insurer will usually assess you on whichever job takes most of your time.
Tutors who run a small agency, placing other tutors with families, are running a business with its own risks. If clients and tutors deal with you alone, think about what would happen to that income if you could not work.
- Exam season peaks
- Holiday dips
- Mixed income from teaching and marking
Low physical risk, real mental strain
Tutoring is not physically demanding, especially if you work online from home. Insurers usually see it as lower risk, which helps keep premiums down. Voice strain, eye strain from screens and long hours hunched over a laptop can still cause problems.
The bigger risks are often illnesses unrelated to work, such as cancer, heart disease or mental health conditions. Income protection covers these too, which is why it matters even in a low-risk job where you are unlikely to be injured at your desk.
Life insurance for the self-employed tutor
Without an employer, you have no death in service benefit. If your family relies on your income, life insurance can pay a lump sum to clear the mortgage or support them. Family income benefit can provide a monthly sum instead, which some families find easier to plan around.
Writing cover in trust means the payout can reach your family quickly and usually sits outside your estate for inheritance tax. It costs nothing extra to set up, and we can go through the form with you and explain who might make a good trustee.
If you share a home with a partner who would struggle to meet the rent or mortgage alone, even a modest policy can make a big difference. Cover bought young is usually cheaper to keep.
How Hi Tomorrow supports private tutors
We start with your tax returns and your typical term and holiday income, then compare income protection from insurers on our panel. Because tutoring is low risk, many insurers will judge a claim against your own occupation, and we show you which ones.
We can also arrange life insurance or critical illness cover at the same time, and review it as your tutoring business grows or your family changes. Terms depend on the underwriting of the insurer you choose.