And almost nobody bought them.
Not because people didn’t care about safety. Not because they didn’t understand the risk. But because humans are wired to believe “it won’t happen to me.”
It’s the same psychology we see today with income protection.
When Ford offered seatbelts, fewer than 2% of buyers added them. Even though:
Road deaths were high
Cars were getting faster
The risk was obvious
People didn’t see the immediate value. They saw an extra cost, not extra protection.
It took decades - and a lot of tragedy - before seatbelts became standard, accepted, and finally compulsory.
Today, we look back and think: “How did people not see the benefit?”
But we’re doing the exact same thing right now with income protection.
Your income is the engine of your life. It pays for:
Your home
Your food
Your family’s stability
Every plan you’ve ever made
Lose it suddenly, and everything else becomes fragile.
Yet despite that, most people still don’t protect it.
The numbers are shocking:Only 1 in 10 UK adults have any form of income protection
Over 50% of households have less than £1,500 in savings
Millions rely solely on statutory sick pay - £116.75 a week
We protect our phones. We protect our pets. We protect our cars. But the one thing that pays for all of those? Most people leave it exposed.
Just like seatbelts in the 1950s - the benefit is obvious, but the action feels optional… until it isn’t.
People don’t buy protection because they expect something bad. They buy it because they finally understand the cost of not having it.
Seatbelts didn’t become popular because roads got safer. They became popular because people realised the risk was always there - they had just been ignoring it.
Income protection is no different.
The risk isn’t new. The awareness is.
If you’re off work for months due to illness or injury, your income doesn’t magically keep flowing. Your bills don’t pause. Your mortgage doesn’t wait. Life doesn’t stop.
Income protection is the seatbelt that keeps everything stable when life suddenly swerves.
It’s not about fear. It’s about realism. It’s about protecting the thing that protects everything else.
Ford’s early seatbelts were cheap, simple, and life‑saving - but people ignored them because the danger felt distant.
Income protection is today’s version of that same blind spot.
The benefit is obvious. The cost is small. The risk is real. And the people who have it never regret it.
If you want to make sure your financial “seatbelt” is in place, I can help you understand your options clearly, calmly, and without pressure.
I’m Gary, a mortgage adviser based in Essex, specialising in self‑employed, complex income, and adverse‑credit cases.
