Life Insurance With Sciatica

Sciatica Is A Nerve Symptom, And Insurers Ask About It By Name

Sciatica is pain, tingling or numbness that travels from the lower back down the leg, caused by pressure on or irritation of a nerve root. Most often the cause is a disc in the lower spine. It is related to back pain, but it is not the same thing, and a lot of application forms treat it separately: you may see a question that names sciatica specifically alongside one about back or spine problems.

That matters because people who have had sciatica sometimes answer "no" to a back pain question, reasoning that their problem was in the leg. Read each question on its own terms, and if sciatica is named, answer it. If your history is mainly back pain rather than leg symptoms, our page on life insurance with back pain goes into how mechanical back problems, disc prolapse and spinal surgery are assessed more broadly.

Why Life Cover Shrugs And Income Protection Does Not

A life insurance underwriter is pricing the chance you die during the term. Sciatica, however painful, does not move that, so it normally makes no difference to life cover or to critical illness cover.

An income protection underwriter is pricing the chance you are unable to work for longer than your deferred period, and how long such a claim might last. Sciatica scores on both counts. It can make sitting, driving, standing and lifting difficult for weeks or months, and once someone has had it, a further episode is more likely. That is the whole reason for the difference in treatment, and it is why the rest of this page is mostly about income protection.

One Episode Five Years Ago Reads Very Differently From Three In Two Years

The pattern of your sciatica tells an underwriter more than the diagnosis. Broadly, they will be trying to place you somewhere along a scale like this:

• A single episode, fully resolved, some years ago. Treated with time, painkillers or a short course of physio, little or no time off. This has the best chance of income protection without an exclusion.
• A recent single episode. Even if it has settled, an insurer cannot yet tell whether it will come back, so an exclusion is more likely in the short term.
• Recurring episodes. Each recurrence makes the next one look more likely. Expect an exclusion, and possibly a broad one.
• Current symptoms or ongoing treatment. If you are mid-episode, off work, or waiting for a scan or specialist, income protection may be postponed rather than offered.

Time without symptoms is your most useful asset here, which is why accurate dates matter. "A couple of years ago" and "March three years ago, settled by June" can be underwritten differently.

Injections, Discectomy And What Each Tells The Underwriter

Treatment is evidence of severity, so the treatment you have had shapes the assessment.

Physiotherapy and medication are the usual first steps and on their own suggest a self-limiting episode. Steroid injections, such as an epidural or nerve root block, mean symptoms were persistent enough to need a specialist. An underwriter will want to know whether the injection worked and whether you needed more than one.

A discectomy or microdiscectomy removes the part of the disc pressing on the nerve. When it works, it can resolve sciatica well, and an insurer is then mainly interested in how long ago it was and whether symptoms have returned. Shortly after surgery, an exclusion for income protection is likely. If you are awaiting surgery, income protection is commonly postponed until after it, because the outcome is unknown.

Lasting effects matter too. Numbness, foot weakness or any bladder or bowel symptoms that remained after a nerve compression should be declared. They are more significant than pain that has resolved, because they are a continuing effect rather than a past one.

The Exclusion Will Probably Be Wider Than Your Sciatica

Because sciatica is usually caused by something in the lower spine, insurers rarely exclude "sciatica" alone. A typical exclusion catches the cause as well: the lumbar spine, disc problems, and related nerve symptoms. Some go further and exclude the whole spine, including the neck.

That difference has real consequences. With a narrow lumbar exclusion, a future neck problem or a shoulder injury is still covered. With a whole-spine exclusion it may not be. When you are offered income protection, find out:

• Exactly which parts of the spine and which nerve conditions are excluded.
• Whether the exclusion can be reviewed after a symptom-free period, and how long that is.
• Whether a different deferred period would change the insurer's view.
• How another insurer would word it for the same history.

Some insurers offer a review of the exclusion if you remain free of symptoms, treatment and time off for a set period. Where a review is offered, it usually needs you to request it, so keep a record of the date.

Drivers, Carers And Tradespeople Feel It Most

Sciatica affects some jobs much more than others. Prolonged sitting and vibration make it hard for professional drivers; lifting and bending make it hard for care workers, nurses, warehouse staff and builders. An insurer pricing income protection takes that into account, so the same history can produce a narrower exclusion for a desk-based role than for a manual one.

If you are self-employed, the stakes are higher still because there is no sick pay behind you. Our guide to self-employed income protection explains how to think about deferred periods and the length of payments when you are the business.

Getting The Application Right First Time

You have a legal duty to take reasonable care to answer the insurer's questions honestly and accurately. Sciatica is easy to forget, especially an episode years ago, but it will be on your GP record, and an income protection claim for a back or leg problem is exactly when an insurer checks. A missed episode can lead to a reduced or refused claim.

Insurers' approaches to sciatica genuinely differ: on how long ago an episode needs to be, on how injections are viewed, and on how wide the exclusion is. Applying to several insurers one after another to find out is slow and leaves a trail of differing decisions. A broker can ask insurers how they would view your history before a full application is made, and point you to the one most likely to offer a narrow exclusion or none at all.