A payout when the diagnosis is serious
A lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of the conditions your policy covers. Paid while you are alive, and dealing with it.
Critical illness cover pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a serious condition such as cancer, a heart attack or a stroke. The money is yours to use as you need: many people clear the mortgage, others use it to cover the bills while they take proper time to recover instead of hurrying back.
Across a working-age mortgage term, a serious diagnosis is considerably more likely than death. Life insurance is the cover people buy first; this is the one a household is statistically more likely to lean on.
What separates a good policy from a cheap one
- Which conditions are covered
- Every insurer covers the major conditions. The differences are in the longer list, and in the wording that defines each one, because that wording is what a claim is judged against.
- How the definitions are written
- Two policies can name the same condition and treat the same diagnosis differently, because severity thresholds vary between insurers. This is why the cheapest quote is not automatically the best answer, and why we read the definitions rather than the price list.
- Cover for your children
- Many policies automatically include an element of cover for your children. What is included, and to what age, varies. Better to know now than to find out at the worst moment.
- Combined with life cover
- Life and critical illness are often arranged as one combined policy, which usually costs less than two separate ones. Combined or separate is a genuine decision with trade-offs, and we set out both.
The mortgage does not pause while you recover. That is the gap this cover exists to fill.
The scepticism, answered honestly
These policies never actually pay out, do they?
When a claim fails it is almost always for one of two reasons: the condition did not meet the policy's definition, or something was not disclosed at application. Both are avoidable. Buy on the definitions rather than the price, and tell the insurer everything, however minor it feels. We help you do both.
I have savings to fall back on.
Savings help, and a long illness can outlast them. A payout means the mortgage is dealt with without draining what took years to build, at exactly the moment your earning power is interrupted.
It seems expensive compared to life insurance.
It is, for the honest reason that it is far more likely to be claimed on. The way to handle the cost is to fit the sum assured to your budget rather than abandoning the idea: cover that stays in force beats cover that gets cancelled in the spring.
How is this different from income protection?
This pays one lump sum on diagnosis of a defined condition. Income protection pays a monthly amount for anything that stops you working, for as long as you cannot. They answer different questions, and some households genuinely need both.
Let's find out where you stand.
One conversation, no cost, and no obligation to go any further. We will tell you honestly what is possible before you commit to anything.