What is Critical Illness Cover?
The average age for claiming on critical illness cover is between 49 – 54
The most claimed for illnesses are:
- Cancer: 1 in 2 people will get a form of cancer in their lifetime
- Heart attacks: There are 100,000 hospital admissions every year in the UK
- Strokes: There are also 100,000 hospitals admissions every year in the UK
… And that’s not taking into consideration the two-year backlog in the NHS for appointments. The odds of you or a family member facing a life-threatening condition are pretty high, but only 7% of the UK population have critical illness cover.
So what happens to you and your family if you fall ill? Mashroom Mortgages’ Kirsty Primmer explains it all.
How does critical illness cover work?
Critical illness cover is an insurance like life insurance, but it pays out upon the diagnosis of a critical or terminal illness.
Different levels of cover are sometimes taken – sometimes it will cover a full mortgage for instance, sometimes just a lump sum of cover, depending on costs, budgets and things like that.
Different lenders have different ways of categorising critical illness, so payouts will depend on the criteria of the insurer and what they class as severity of the condition. As always, the best thing to do is speak to an advisor, who can explain all the details and give you all the information you need in order to make the right decision for you and your family.
How does critical illness cover pay out?
It will either pay out a lump sum or a monthly benefit, depending on the conversations you have when you make the claim with the insurer.
There are some insurers that have claims teams that are are counsellor trained, so at a time when you are feeling particularly vulnerable, you will have the very best support and will never feel like you’re a burden to them or you’re just a number. Some insurers will pay out within 24 hours, for instance, with things like a cancer diagnosis. They will actually ask to speak to your oncologist or they’ll ask to speak to your MacMillan nurse and pay out without you having to fill in any paperwork at all.
What happens after you’ve made a claim on critical illness cover?
Generally speaking, once the claim is paid the cover stops.
However, if the payout was for a child’s critical illness part of the policy, that may be something that is a smaller benefit payout, so it might be in addition to the cover you’ve got which would pay out later if you were to fall ill.
How varied are critical illness cover policies?
Different insurers mean different policies. One could cover something that another may not, so it’s best to get the advice of a good protection advisor, who will make sure that you have the cover that’s most important to you.
You don’t want to pay for this insurance and not have the cover you wanted for it!
You can have a separate critical illness and life insurance policy or you can have a joint critical illness and life insurance policy. Again, it depends on what is important to you. Our protection advisors can tailor packages to suit your needs
For Kirsty, life insurance cover brings her peace of mind, knowing that whatever life throws at her, she will be covered and be able to keep the home she worked so hard for. It also covers her buy-to-let properties that are an investment for her future. If you want to talk to Kirsty about the options available to your for your life insurance, you can book a call today.
