h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

..Seems like a gap in the market to me. I've just started a new job and in common when many (most?) employers none of the usual standard benefits (usual in the UK anyway) such as death-in-service benefit or even a 4-week notice period of termination, kick in during the probation period. In my case that's for a whole 6 months

So I've left the security of my last local authority employer to go to another government agency type job, but I feel really exposed and vulnerable should anything happen in the next 6 months. A time during which if I died my wife would get nothing, instead of being able to pay off most of the mortgage.

Or if things don't work out in the job and either I hate it, or it hates me, I can be sacked with no notice and no income buffer time of at least a month to find new work. Gawd for the next 6 months it will be like working in the USA! .

If I could pay a premium; even a fairly hefty one, for that 6 months that would guarantee me these benefits, I'd pay it!

Am I missing something here ? The UK has in recent decades been very strong on workers rights and we are heavily unionised, yet nobody seems to bother about these big gaps where there is little to no protection when changing jobs.

Here in the States, if a worker gets laid off or quits a job, they may qualify for COBRA health insurance (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act). Since health insurance is typically provided by employers, this is meant to provide coverage between jobs. (Employers provide coverage by contracting with insurance companies, and subsidizing the premiums paid by employees.) COBRA insurance is not subsidized by employees so is much more expensive than the insurance it's replacing. I don't know the actual statistics, but I suspect very few people, and likely extremely few young people take advantage of COBRA because when you're in between jobs it's very hard to pay for even more expensive insurance.

I should also mention how COBRA affects those with pre-existing conditions. Many health insurance policies do not cover pre-existing conditions if the customer new and hasn't carried insurance immediately before beginning coverage with the new insurer. COBRA is often the only way to avoid those pre-existing condition exclusions.

Interesting thanks. We can of course take out income protection or critical illness/life insurance privately - many people do - but these are very expensive and I'm not sure they are designed for this temporary 'new job' period. They may even specifically exclude this trial period from cover and it would be considered too risky perhaps.