Critical Illness Cover

What is Critical Illness Cover?

Here in the UK, many people suffer from some form of critical illness during their life that doesn't result in death. This may take the form of a heart attack, a stroke, serious cancer or some other extremely life changing illness.

The effects of such an illness can be both devastating to your health and also to your financial stability. Not only does this mean that you could be affected, but also your family and their way of life.

Critical illness insurance allows you the opportunity to insure yourself (and your partner if you choose) against suffering from a list of common critical illnesses. It offers peace of mind at a time when you do not need to be worrying about how you will maintain your financial commitments and protect the roof over your family's heads.

How would my cover work?

Critical Illness Cover is very straightforward in the way it works. It provides you with continuous cover, for your monthly premium, for a set number of years known as the cover term. If at anytime during this term, you are diagnosed with a critical illness which is on your insurance companies list of critical illnesses, the insurance company will payout your cover amount in a lump sum (known as the sum assured).

The payout is then yours to do with as you please however most people choose to pay off their mortgages and other liabilities, help provide themselves with private medical care or simply to enjoy a more relaxing lifestyle without worrying about income for a while.

How do I know how much my critical illness insurance will payout?

Your sum assured (the amount your cover will payout) is decided by you when you take your policy. It is usually taken at a level which will enable you to pay off your mortgage and other debts or to provide you with enough funds to replace your income for a number of years.

For those people with capital and repayment mortgages, you have the option to take your critical illness cover on a 'decreasing' basis where the amount that is paid out, goes down over the years as your mortgage reduces. This leaves enough in the policy to cover your mortgage if you suffer from a critical illness, but will not leave much left over.

Which Critical Illnesses are covered?

The critical illnesses covered by each insurance company vary between each insurer but all cover a basic set of illnesses including heart attacks, strokes, advanced cancers, permanent loss of a limb, permanent blindness or deafness and kidney or liver failure.

Can I combine my Critical Illness with Life Insurance?

By combining your critical illness cover with life insurance you can ensure that you and your family are fully covered against death or an earlier critical illness.

Usually your critical illness insurance comes with a 14 day survival period attached. This means that if you have only taken critical illness cover by itself, you must survive the first 14 days of your illness to be guaranteed a payout. If you sadly die within those 14 days, your insurance company will not pay your claim.

If you take life and critical illness cover together, on the other hand, you can be certain that if you die within those first 14 days, your family will still receive your payout from the life insurance part of the cover.

As well as ensuring that you are fully covered, taking life and critical illness insurance together can also provide good savings when compared to taking a life insurance policy and a critical illness policy separately. (Sometimes adding a life insurance cover to a critical illness cover can cost only a few extra pounds, compared to the critical illness on its own).

You can find more information about life insurance on our life cover guide.

Is there lots of paperwork and forms to complete?

Our trained staff will complete as much of the paperwork for you, as we can, leaving you with only a few signatures to complete and the minimal of fuss.

Is Critical illness cover only applicable to me if I have a mortgage?

Critical illness cover is equally important for those with mortgages as it is for those without. In both situations your illness is going to cause you a great loss of earnings and whether you have a mortgage or not, its very likely you have other items and bills to pay each month.

On top of these monthly outgoings, its also important to consider that you may want to use some of your payout for private medical care, which can often be faster than waiting for an NHS procedure.

Am I the only person covered by my policy?

Your cover is extremely flexible and not only can you choose your sum assured and length of cover, but you can also choose to have a joint policy with your partner to ensure you are both fully cover.

Some insurance companies will even offer to protect your children against the effects of a critical illness and whilst this is a parents worst nightmare, its comforting to think that if your child did suffer, you could ensure they received the best and quickest private medical attention.