Months at sea and the risks onboard
Working on deck means mooring lines, heavy equipment, ladders and wet surfaces, often in rough weather. Engine room crew face heat, noise and machinery. Galley and hotel staff on passenger ships have their own lifting and burn risks.
Long tours away from home can affect your mental health, and medical help onboard is limited. Any condition that costs you your seafarer medical certificate can stop you sailing.
What insurers want to know
Insurers ask about your rank, the type of vessel, where it trades and how long you spend at sea each year. Ferries running UK routes are viewed differently from tankers in distant waters. Some insurers decline certain areas or roles.
You will usually need to live in the UK and be registered with a UK GP. Insurers may limit or pause a claim if you fall ill while at sea and cannot be assessed.
- Your role: deck, engine, galley or hotel
- Vessel type and trading area
- Typical tour length and time at home
Income, sick pay and choosing cover
Seafarers' pay and tax can be unusual, and some earn while abroad for most of the year. Insurers set benefit from income they can verify, so payslips and tax records matter. Your employer may pay sick pay while you are under contract, but that can end when your tour does.
Insurers group occupations into risk classes, which affects the price and the incapacity definition. Where income protection is not available, life cover and critical illness cover may still be options.
Family life with a seafarer at home and away
Long tours mean your partner manages the house and finances alone for weeks or months. If something happened to you at sea, they would face the mortgage and bills without your income. Life insurance pays a lump sum or monthly income to your family, and a policy written in trust can pay out without waiting for probate.
Critical illness cover pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a listed condition such as some cancers, heart attacks or strokes. It does not depend on your ability to work, which can make it simpler to arrange for seafarers. Some families combine life and critical illness cover in one policy.
Hi Tomorrow and seafarers
We gather the details insurers ask for before we approach them, so you get a realistic answer quickly. We compare the insurers on our panel that are open to maritime work.
If income protection is limited, we look at life cover for your family and mortgage. Advice costs you nothing.