IPTM6115 - Sickness disability and unemployment insurance: tax treatment: main rules: qualifying risks and qualifying periods ITTOIA05/S736 & S737

A qualifying health or employment risk is a risk that the insured person would in the future

suffer from any physical or mental illness, or deterioration in an existing condition, as may be specified in the policy, or
cease to be employed or self-employed due to circumstances as may be specified in the policy.

The risk relates to what was specified in the policy, not to what actually happened to the insured person.

Payments are only exempt if made in respect of one or more of the following periods:

the period throughout which illness, etc., continued, including convalescence
the period throughout which unemployment continued
the period throughout which there was a reduction of income, ignoring payments received from the policy – this includes a period after the person has returned to work but continues to receive payments from the policy because their pay is lower than it was before the absence
where any of the above periods ended with the death of the insured person, a further period of time immediately following the death.

Insurance Policyholder Taxation Manual