Critical Illness Cover

Did you know that there’s around 375,000 new cancer cases in the UK every year, and half of those survive for 10 years or more. And whilst 175,000 die each year from heart and circulatory diseases, there are 7.6 million living with it.
(Sources: Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation, 2024 website data)

This highlights the importance of ensuring you have some sort of Critical Illness protection in place should you suffer a serious illness such cancer, heart attack or stroke, and then survive.

And these days, the plans may encompass a far wider number of conditions, such as the loss of a limb, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s/Dementia.

Tax-free lump sum payout

If your serious illness is specified in your policy, then you may be one of the nine in ten that have their claims met each year (91.6% in 2022).
(Source: Association of British Insurers, 2022 Claims Statistics, released May 2023)

Whilst you may survive, it’s highly unlikely that you’d make a swift return to work, which could create concerns regarding your finances. Particularly if you have additional healthcare costs, or home renovation needs to reflect your changing circumstances.

Sadly, this is a reality for many families whose lives have been turned upside down by illness.

Of course, if you’re employed, you may have the buffer of a period of disability cover as an employee benefit. After that, you may have to fall back on state benefits of limited value.

Also, don’t just think that this should only be a concern if you’re much older, as the average age of critical illness claimants across insurers is around late 40s to early 50s, with cancer being the main reason for claiming.

Innovations

Critical Illness Cover has seen a great deal of enhancements over the years:

– The number of health conditions covered has increased significantly (in some cases more than a hundred).

– Additional and partial payments have been introduced. The advent of partial payments, for example, for less serious conditions has probably been one of the most welcome developments in this sector. This means that clients may still be covered, when in the past their diagnosis could have resulted in a declined claim, due to the condition not being deemed to be serious enough.

– Also, the introduction of enhanced payments may allow the claimant to receive an additional or higher payout if they are diagnosed with an illness that has a bigger impact on their life than expected.

What do you need?

You’d decide the level of cover you require at the outset. Perhaps you may want to have enough to pay off the mortgage, or alternatively you may opt for less cover (meaning a lower premium too), but still have enough to see you through the initial couple of years as you recover.

Critical illness cover can be taken as a stand-alone policy, or as a bolt-on to a life insurance plan. The policies will vary with regard to the illnesses covered, and in some cases it could also include cover for your children up to age 18-21 (if applicable), within a specified payout limit.

Please get in touch to hear more…

As with all insurance policies, terms, conditions and exclusions will apply.