Critical Illness Cover

A policy that pays out if you are diagnosed with one of the serious conditions it lists, while the policy is running. It is designed to give you money to live on and cover your commitments at a point when working may not be possible. It is separate from life cover, which pays out on death.

Each insurer publishes its own list of conditions, and the lists differ, which is why comparing them matters more than comparing price alone. Cancer, heart attack and stroke appear on essentially every policy. Beyond those the range varies widely, and some insurers cover early-stage conditions that others do not. We go through the actual definitions with you rather than the headline number.

Anywhere from around forty to over a hundred, depending on the insurer, and the number is the least useful thing on the brochure. A policy listing fifty conditions with broad definitions can be worth more than one listing ninety with narrow ones, because the definition decides the claim and the count does not. Ask what the wording says about the conditions you are actually worried about.

There is no single answer, because the covered conditions are defined by each insurer in its policy wording, and the definition matters as much as the name. Two policies can both list a condition and pay out differently on the same diagnosis. The Association of British Insurers publishes model wordings for the core conditions, which is why cancer, heart attack and stroke are broadly comparable across the market, and why everything beyond them is not.

Usually, and it catches people out. Most policies require you to survive a set period after diagnosis before they pay, commonly fourteen days, though some insurers use twenty-eight and a few have removed it. If you die inside that window, the critical illness benefit does not pay, and whether anything pays at all depends on whether the policy also includes life cover. It is worth checking the number on your own wording.

Yes. It can be arranged as a standalone policy, though many people take it alongside life cover because the combination is often cheaper than two separate policies. Which makes sense depends on what you are protecting and who depends on you, and on whether you are comfortable with a combined policy paying only once.

Usually not for the main benefit. A combined life and critical illness policy is normally written to pay on the first event, so if it pays on a critical illness claim the cover ends and there is no life cover left afterwards. Separate policies avoid that, at a cost. Many policies do also make smaller additional payments for less severe conditions without ending the cover, which is a different mechanism worth understanding.

You pay a monthly premium, and if you are diagnosed with a condition the policy covers and you survive any waiting period set out in the wording, it pays a tax-free lump sum. What you do with it is up to you: clear a mortgage, replace lost income, or pay for care and adaptations.

From around £5 a month, subject to your age, health and lifestyle. That is the entry point across the mainstream UK market and it is what we can arrange, because we place the same insurers the comparison sites do rather than a restricted panel. What actually moves the price is your age, whether you smoke, the sum assured, the term and your medical history, all of which matter more than which insurer you end up with. Adding critical illness to a life policy typically costs several times what the life cover alone costs, because claiming on it during the term is more likely than dying during it.

It depends on what would happen to your household if you could not work for a long period. If you have a mortgage, dependants, or little in the way of savings and no meaningful sick pay, it fills a real gap. If your employer provides substantial long-term sick pay and you have savings behind you, it may matter less. Income protection is often the better fit where the worry is being unable to work rather than a specific diagnosis.