The dividend safety score is one of the measures inside your portfolio health score. It counts for three profiles — Fortress Builder (34%, labelled Income durability), Slow Grower (28%) and Power Investor (20%, labelled Cash-flow resilience) — and it also feeds the income profile measure. Each holding that pays a dividend starts at 65 and moves on two figures. Payout ratio adds 20 at 55% or less, 12 up to 75% and 3 up to 90%, and takes off 10 up to 110% and 24 above that. Dividend cover adds 20 at 2.2× or more, 12 from 1.5× and 2 from 1.1×, and takes off 10 from 0.8× and 24 below. Each result is held between 10 and 100, then averaged across your dividend payers by value.
Know the limits of that methodology. Dividend cover is worked out as 1 ÷ payout ratio, so the two figures are one fact counted twice. Both come from profit, not cash, so a dividend paid from borrowing can still score well; debt, the dividend's own history and any cut already announced are invisible to it. Holdings that pay nothing or have neither figure, including funds and ETFs, are left out. If none are left, the score sits at a neutral 65 and reads “Limited signal data available”, which is not the same as safe.
Data latency applies to every figure in this theme, so here it is once. The payout ratio is the data provider's trailing twelve months. The app refreshes it daily, but it only changes when a company reports — usually twice a year in the UK and four times in the US — so the score can lag a profit warning by months, and it shows no date. The Dividend Safety widget is a separate score out of 10 for each holding that also weighs yield and the recent trend in payments, so the two can disagree.
1.6× cover is just 62% turned upside down: one fact, scored twice.
Educational content only. It is not personal financial advice.