Income Protection by Job

If you’re looking for income protection for your job, you’re in the right place.

Start by finding your role below. Then we’ll show you how insurers are likely to assess it and where people get caught out.

Find Your Job (and What Insurers Will Think)

Quick heads up: we recently saw a Civil Engineer given Class 1 (lower)  rates by two insurers but Class 2 by three others. Same job, different premium.

• Accountants
• Company Directors
• Construction Workers
• Contractors
• Dentists
• Doctors & Consultants
• Engineers
• High-Risk Jobs
• Nurses
• Pharmacists
• Commission-Based Roles
• Self-Employed & Freelancers
• Solicitors
• Teachers

Not sure how your job will be viewed?

Tell us what you actually do (not just your job title) and we’ll tell you how insurers are likely to assess it.

👉 Check your occupation now

Income Protection Occupation Class

Insurers don’t just look at your age and health, they also look at what you do for a living.

Every job is placed into an “occupation class”, which reflects how risky that job is from an insurer’s point of view.

Lower-risk jobs (like office-based roles) usually get better terms.

More physical or hazardous roles can mean higher premiums or a decline (not all occupaitons can get income protection)

Real Example: Same Job, Different Outcome

We recently looked at a case for a civil engineer working with Irish Rail.

On paper, it looked straightforward. Mostly office-based, occasional site visits, and supervisory work.

But when we checked with insurers:

• 3 insurers classified the role as Class 2
• 2 insurers were happy to offer Class 1

That’s a completely different outcome  for the exact same job.

The difference came down to how each insurer interpreted the site work:

• How often they visited site
• What they were doing when they were there
• Whether they were supervising or actively involved

If this client had applied to the wrong insurer first, they could have ended up with higher premiums for no reason.

Most people get this wrong the first time.

If you apply to the wrong insurer first, you don’t just get a worse quote but you can limit your options going forward.

We check all five insurers before you apply so you don’t have to guess.

👉 Start here

Editor’s note: First published August 2025. Updated in 2026 to reflect how insurers in Ireland currently assess different occupations for income protection.