The Family Support Initiative, recently been announced by the Income Protection Task Force (IPTF), has stimulated great initial interest and support according to Peter Le Beau, the Chairman of IPTF.
Next year the IPTF intends to embark on a campaign highlighting the impact serious illness and disability has on families.
The IPTF will identify several families where the breadwinner has suffered a serious illness or accident and support the family for a year through a trust funded by insurers and reinsurers.
The campaign includes working with the Money Advise Service; issuing a charter the industry will be invited to sign up to in January and the designing of a simple questionnaire on whether IP is likely to affect an individual's benefits, which was announced this month.
It is currently talking to "a range" of charities to see which will be involved in the project alongside the protection industry.
Le Beau said: "Over a dozen companies have already committed to the project in principle and we have had expressions of support and offers of help from many parts of the industry including people wishing to work on a pro bono basis to help the project.
"We also have real interest from companies able to provide rehabilitation and case management to the families we will be supporting."
TV production companies have shown an interest in following the project, although Le Beau stressed that the project would be partly filmed and distributed via the internet anyway.
He said: "Production companies have expressed preliminary interest. This is the most ambitious aspect of the project but we need to look at funding for this and where it would be shown. It could certainly be a most powerful message."
