Accident, Sickness & Unemployment Policies provide cover for a shorter term than Income Protection Cover and therefore can only be claimed for a maximum of 1-2 years, depending upon the company.

ASU policies can have redundancy cover incorporated for employed persons only, meaning that you can claim on the policy should you be made redundant from your occupation.

ASU policies can either be linked directly to mortgage payments, loan payments or general bills/income. You can defer the waiting period of your claim to match the sickness benefits of your employer.

The Facts

	The average length of an unemployment claim has risen to 175 days in 2003 from 141 days five years earlier. Source: Council of Mortgage lenders, H1 2003.
	Average length of claim for Accidents and Sickness is 190 days. That's equivalent to six months. Source: Association of British Insurers.
	Around 650 people are made redundant every day in the UK. Source: Social Trends, National Statistics.
	553,000 people were made redundant in the UK from April 06 to March 07, an increase of over 100,000 people over the course of that year. Source: Association of British Insurers.

OVERVIEW OF ACCIDENT, SICKNESS & UNEMPLOYMENT COVER

	You can be covered from 12 to 24 months.
	You can choose the deferment period when you can start claiming on the policy. If you have six months sick pay at work you can choose a policy that has a deferment period of six months.
	For people with no sick pay at work you can choose back to day one cover. This type of policy will pay out after 30 days with payment backdated to day one.
	You can be covered for a combination of insurances. You may simply want the unemployment cover for your mortgage if you already have accident sickness insurance at work.
	Choose the amount of cover you require. You can choose to cover up to an additional 25% cover and above the combined total of your mortgage payment, life premium and household premium.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.