Picture an ordinary Tuesday morning in a household where the wife has just passed away. The children still need to go to school. Someone has to sit with the ageing parent who needs help with medicines and meals. The house still needs running. None of this pauses for grief.For years, these jobs were simply hers, done quietly, without a salary attached, so nobody totted up their worth. Now each one needs a name and a price tag: a cook, a nanny or day care, a part-time attendant for the elderly parent. What was once absorbed into one person’s day, unpaid and unnoticed, becomes the monthly outgo the family must find money for when its finances are already strained.Traditional insurance wisdom has long dictated that a person without an income does not need a life cover. This is because life insurance is meant to replace the income of the insured in case of their demise so that the fam ily’s financial needs are taken care of. Yet, life insurers make an exception for non-earning homemakers.“One of the biggest misconceptions is that life insurance is only meant for those who earn an income. A homemaker may not receive a salary, but she has a critical role in the financial and emotional functioning of the household,” says Vaibhav Kumar, Head, Product Management and Ecommerce Channel, Axis Max Life Insurance.“Responsibilities such as childcare, household management, and elder care have significant economic value and would incur substantial costs if these tasks had to be outsourced,” explains Niraj Shah, Executive Director & CFO, HDFC Life. Life insurance provides financial protection by helping the family manage the cost of replacing these responsibilities.ALSO READ | Student Term Plan: With a big education loan and long repayment years, should you go for it?The Supreme Court agrees with the concept of replacement income. While ruling in an accident compensation case in June this year, it fixed a minimum notional income of Rs.30,000 a month for ‘loss of domestic care’ in case of a homemaker’s death. The figure may be new, but the concept is old as the cost of income replacement is one of the parameters life insurers use to determine the size of life cover for homemakers.However, a simple stacking of replacement costs of a homemaker’s services does not translate into the sum assured. It is determined by a combination of various other factors.How much does a homemaker cover cost?Here’s how much some insurers charge as an annual premium for a Rs.50 lakh cover for a 30-year-old homemaker, till 60 years of age.