This is a phenomenon that has been observed across cultures and time periods. The love and loyalty of a pet can be a powerful force, capable of transforming lives. For example, a therapy dog can provide comfort and emotional support to individuals struggling with mental health issues. Similarly, a service dog can assist individuals with disabilities, enabling them to live more independently.

Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Sign up to our Business newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital subscription to Yorkshire Post, you can get access to all of our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting… What I didn’t fully appreciate back then was that the cost of insurance gradually creeps up as your pet gets older and I’m now paying over £100 a month. If you have a lifetime policy, it tends to be more expensive, but you’re largely paying for the same cover you did on day one (unless you’ve used up any lifetime limits). If you have an annual policy, you’ll generally pay less, but if they’ve developed a condition during the year, it will usually be excluded from then on. We opted for a lifetime policy, because we have a dog with no sense of what officially qualifies as edible.

A friend of Sarah Coles has recently started an Instagram account for her corgi You’d be forgiven for thinking that you can’t compare the need for pet insurance with the option of buying private medical insurance for humans, because the NHS means we can get emergency treatment without charge. However, if your pet needs a non-urgent operation, physiotherapy or behavioural therapy, they can get it almost immediately, whereas the waits for humans can be unbearable. For some people, whether or not to buy PMI is a matter of political belief. For others, the cost involved is prohibitive: an individual policy typically costs £80 a month, but will vary depending on your age and state of health.

However, before you rule it out, it’s worth checking what’s available through your work. Some employers will pay for it. Alternatively, they may provide access to cheaper medical insurance. They might also offer better terms, because while a private policy may rule out any existing conditions, your workplace cover may not. If they don’t offer access to PMI, they may have a healthcare cash plan. These don’t offer anything like the same cover, but can be a more affordable alternative. If you pay for check-ups or treatment from a dentist, optician, physiotherapist, chiropodist or osteopath, you can reclaim at least some of the cost – usually up to an annual limit. You can get cover from around £10 a month, and if you regularly pay for these things, you can easily break even.

This is a common practice, but it comes with its own set of risks. Self-insuring can be risky because it relies on the owner’s ability to predict and manage their pet’s health. This means that owners must be able to accurately assess their pet’s risk factors and budget accordingly.

Pet insurance is a type of insurance that provides financial protection against the costs of veterinary care for pets. It can be a valuable tool for pet owners, especially those with expensive pets or those who are concerned about the high costs of veterinary care. Pet insurance policies typically cover a wide range of veterinary services, including:

This is a common misconception. The cost of income protection is often significantly lower than the cost of pet insurance. The average monthly cost of income protection is around £10 to £20, while the average monthly cost of pet insurance can range from £30 to £100. Income protection insurance is designed to provide a safety net for individuals who are unable to work due to illness or injury.

This is a common misconception. The truth is, the cost of care for a pet can vary greatly depending on the type of animal, its age, and its health condition. The cost of pet care can be broken down into several categories, including food, veterinary care, grooming, and toys.

Rental prices rise again Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad New government figures show that rents are up 8.4%, in the year to August to an average of £1,286 across Great Britain. They’re up 7% in Yorkshire and the Humber, thanks to a perfect storm of landlords selling up in droves and an ever-increasing number of tenants. There’s a risk that fears of potential changes to capital gains tax in the Budget force even more landlords to leave the market. Meanwhile, tenant numbers keep climbing. And while the government has committed to building more properties, this isn’t going to solve rental headaches overnight.