Income Protection for Construction Workers

If you work in construction, income protection is often possible.

But it’s rarely as straightforward as people expect.

This is one of those areas where two people can work in the same industry, earn similar money, and still get very different outcomes — depending on what they actually do day to day.

That catches a lot of people out.

Why construction is treated differently

There isn’t a special or restricted income protection policy for builders.

Insurers don’t put construction workers on a watered-down contract. The policy itself is the same one anyone else gets.

The difference is how risk is handled.

Construction roles are assessed using an occupation class. That’s how insurers price the risk of a claim and decide whether cover is available at all.

A Quantity Surveyor who’s mainly office-based will be assessed very differently from someone on tools every day, lifting, climbing, or operating machinery.

Same industry. Completely different underwriting view.

What usually goes wrong

Where people get caught isn’t usually a decline.

Most of the time, they get accepted.

The problem is how they’re accepted.

A common scenario is someone in construction applying directly to an insurer, getting cover, and feeling relieved that it went through. What they don’t realise is that they’ve been assessed as a higher-risk occupation class than necessary.

Another insurer might have viewed the same role differently and offered cover at a lower risk class, with a lower premium.

Switching later often means starting again, older, and usually more expensive.

So nothing looks “wrong” on the surface. You have cover. You’re happy.

You just end up paying more than you needed to, every month, for years.

That’s why order matters.

With income protection, it’s not just about getting accepted. It’s about being accepted by the right insurer, at the right risk class, from the start.

How income protection works when it’s set up properly

If cover is available, the structure itself is fairly simple.

You choose a waiting period, known as the deferred period. That’s how long you’d need to be off work before the policy starts paying. Common options are 13, 26 or 52 weeks.

Once that period is served, the policy pays a monthly income if you’re unable to work due to any illness or injury. Payments continue until you’re fit to return to your job in construction or until the policy ends, usually at age 65.

The longer the deferred period, the cheaper the policy tends to be. That choice should be based on your sick pay, savings, and how long you could realistically manage without income – not guesswork.

How much can you insure?

You can insure up to 75% of your income before tax less State Illness Benefit (if you’re eligible)

Where exclusions actually come from

For builders, restrictions usually don’t come from the job.

They come from medical history.

If you’ve had a previous issue, insurers may exclude that specific area. For example, if you dislocated a shoulder in the last few years, it’s common to see a shoulder exclusion applied.

That doesn’t mean income protection isn’t worth having. It just means the insurer is ring-fencing a known risk.

Everything else that stops you from doing jour job would still be covered as normal.

The important part is knowing what’s likely to be excluded before you apply, so there are no surprises later.

Some insurers take a more flexible view on medical history than others. The key is finding the ones most likely to offer cover with minimal or no exclusions.

Roles we regularly help

We advise people working across construction every day, including electricians, labourers, forepersons, contractors, quantity surveyors and engineers.

They’re all assessed differently.

What to do next

Before filling out application forms or comparison sites, it’s worth checking which insurers are realistic for your role and how best to approach it.

A short check upfront can prevent unnecessary declines or exclusions and save a lot of hassle later.

If you want that looked at properly, complete our income protection questionnaire, and we’ll take it from there.

Thanks for reading

Nick

Editor’s note: This page was first published in December 2023 and fully rebuilt in February 2026 to reflect current Irish income protection underwriting and how construction roles are assessed in practice.