Sick pay that depends on your service
Teachers in maintained schools generally receive sick pay set out in national conditions, starting at a shorter period of full and half pay in early years and increasing with service. Academies and independent schools may follow similar terms or set their own. After those periods end, pay can drop to statutory sick pay or nothing.
That is fine for a short illness. A serious condition, such as cancer treatment, a back operation or a long period of depression, can outlast it. Income protection set to begin when your sick pay stops can keep your income going.
Stress, voices and long days
Teaching is demanding. Marking, planning and paperwork stretch into evenings and weekends, and the classroom itself can be stressful when behaviour is hard to manage or inspections loom. Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are among the most common reasons teachers take long-term sick leave.
Voice strain and throat problems affect many teachers, especially in the first years of the job. PE teachers face sports injuries, science and technology teachers work with equipment and chemicals, and staff in special schools may lift pupils or deal with challenging behaviour.
- Stress, anxiety and burnout
- Voice and throat problems
- Back injuries in special and early years settings
- Sports injuries for PE staff
Supply teachers and private tutoring on the side
Supply teachers working through agencies usually receive only statutory sick pay if they qualify. If you work day to day, you might not qualify at all in a quiet term. For supply teachers, income protection with a short deferred period is worth considering, because the wait for benefit is the time you would spend living on savings.
Teachers who tutor privately in the evenings or mark exams can include that income when applying, as long as it is declared to HMRC. Tell the insurer about all your earnings, because the maximum monthly benefit depends on your total income.
Death in service and what it leaves out
Teacher pension schemes include a death in service lump sum and pensions for partners and children. These can be valuable, but they are linked to your salary and to staying in a school that participates in the scheme. If you leave teaching, move abroad or work part time, the benefit can change.
Personal life insurance lets you choose an amount that matches your mortgage and family needs, and it carries on whatever happens with your career. Plenty of teachers move into tutoring, educational publishing or a new field, and the cover goes with them.
Teachers in independent schools may be in a different pension arrangement or none at all, so check what yours provides before assuming you have the same cover as colleagues in the state sector.
How Hi Tomorrow helps teachers
We look at your length of service and your school's sick pay terms, then set an income protection deferred period that matches. Insurers group occupations into risk classes, and teaching usually sits in a lower-risk class, which helps keep premiums reasonable. We explain whether each policy's claim test is your own occupation as a teacher.
We can arrange life insurance alongside it and help you write it in trust. If you already have cover through a teaching union scheme, we can look at how a personal policy would compare. Final terms come from the insurer's underwriting.