The real value of critical illness cover

Critical illness cover is designed to pay out a lump sum if you're diagnosed with a critical illness covered by the policy during the policy term. Depending on the definition of the critical illness, we may pay on diagnosis only, when the condition has progressed to a specific severity or when named treatments or surgeries are performed. There's no cash-in value at any time.

It's not about leaving money behind for your loved ones (like with life insurance); it's about making sure you've got some money to help you cope if you were diagnosed with a critical illness in the future.

The money you receive can be used however you like - to cover health-related costs or to cover your income while you focus on your recovery.

In simple terms, critical illness cover could help take the pressure off your bank balance while you’re ill and having treatment.

To give you an idea of numbers, in 2024 the average critical illness cover claim amount we paid was £71,989, this is a combination of critical illness, children's benefit and total permanent disability ^{Footnote [1]}.

You’ll find that different insurers cover different things. Our Critical Illness Plan covers 52 conditions and includes children's benefit at no extra cost. The policy includes a survival period of 10 days after the definition is met and does not pay out on death. There's no cash-in value at any time.

Everyone’s different and we’ve helped customers claiming for such things as strokes, heart attacks, benign brain tumours, total permanent disability and multiple sclerosis.

However, most of the claims we get are for cancer. So let’s look at this in a bit more detail.

We’ve partnered with Macmillan Cancer Support. Macmillan estimate the number of people living with cancer in the UK has increased from almost 3 million in 2020 to almost 3.5 million in 2025 ^{Footnote [2]}.

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, given those pretty sobering stats, 58.4% of all critical illness claims we paid in 2024 were for cancer ^{Footnote [1]}.

You might be interested to know that as of June 2025, over half our customers pay £20.00 a month or less for their critical illness cover.

We've seen the numbers - it's hard to ignore the value of your policy and how it could help you and your loved ones. And when the time comes to claim, we do much more than just pay up and leave you to it.

By working with Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialists, we can help to speed up individual protection claim payments for some critical illness customers who have a cancer diagnosis. This helps reduce the time you have to wait for us to settle your claims. In 2024, hundreds of customers had their critical illness claim supported by their Cancer Nurse Specialist. Speeding things up means we're able to help more customers and their families get vital clinical, emotional, and financial security quickly, when they need it most.