Sometimes, life throws a curve ball you don’t expect – so it’s important to be ready.
While life insurance is there to help your loved ones if you’re no longer around to look after them, critical illness cover is there to support you, too. It’s a type of insurance that pays out a tax-free lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a specific medical condition or illness listed in your policy. It’s designed to help support you and your family financially while you deal with your diagnosis – so you can focus on your recovery without worrying how the bills will be paid.
In 2017 the average price paid by people in their 30s was just £25.28 per month*
That’s not much when you consider the impact being too ill to work could have on your income – as with most insurance, it really can pay to be prepared.
Our Critical Illness Plan pays out if you are diagnosed with or undergo surgery, for a critical illness that meets our policy definition during the term of the policy and survive for at least 10 days. We only cover the critical illnesses we define in our policy and no others. Your cover will be based on how long you want your policy to last and how much you pay each month – it makes sense to make sure your cover lasts while you have significant demands on your income (mortgages or school fees, for example) As with regular life insurance, critical illness cover has no cash-in value and pays out the main benefit once.
So, what’s the difference between critical illness cover and life insurance?
Put simply, life insurance only pays out if you pass away while critical illness insurance usually doesn’t – the former is there to help your family maintain their lifestyle after you’ve gone, the latter is for protecting you and your family financially against the costs of serious illness, such as being unable to work.
Children’s benefit: our cover helps your little ones too
This plan can also include a children’s benefit at no extra cost which covers your children for the same illnesses covered under your policy (excluding terminal illness). Children’s critical illness cover helps to look after all your children aged between 30 days and their 18th or 21st birthday (if they’re in full time education). As long as they didn’t have the illness at birth, had symptoms before the cover was taken out, and survive for at least 10 days after diagnosis, we’ll pay either £25,000 or 50% of the cover amount – whichever is lower. Plus, if any of your children die during the policy term, we’ll pay £5000 – which can help during one of life’s most difficult times.
Who needs critical illness cover?
The fact is, being prepared for the unexpected makes good sense for all of us – but some people could benefit more than others. You might want to consider it if:
Remember, too, that state benefits come in at around £70-£100 per week, depending on your circumstances. If you don’t feel this is enough to cover your outgoings, you might want to consider getting cover.
How much cover do I need?
It’s important to consider when selecting your cover, about the costs you’d need to protect if you were to fall ill and couldn’t work.
What illnesses are you covered for?
We cover all of the standard critical illness conditions set out by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), including Alzheimer’s disease, heart attack, multiple sclerosis, stroke and some types of cancer. But for a full break-down of what we do and don’t cover, visit our website.
To find out even more about Aviva’s critical illness cover, and to get a quote, visit our website.
*Data taken from all Aviva single life policies and joint policies where the first life is in their 30s from 12 month period starting 8th January 2017
