Income protection insurance & critical illness via work - claim both?

watersign76

Hello, I am sure the answer to this, is to ask work....but my partner is off sick with ME. He is currently going through the claim process for the income protection insurance policy which should hopefully kick in soon. He also has a critical illness policy. Both policies are by the same provider, and my husband elected to pay into them via his  work benefits package. I think we are slightly worried about not getting one if we get the other. ME is quite misunderstood even by medics, so we are a bit nervous that it isn't going to work out, we have to move if it doesn't.
Most critical illness policies don't cover ME, but his doesn't discount or mention it, so we felt it worth putting in a claim to see what they say. 
Thanks for any insights. 

Sandtree

In most cases the two policies are mutually exclusive so you can claim on both for the same condition. If a claim will be accepted on both is also independent as they are fundamentally different products and something can stop you working that isn't listed on the critical illnesses covered and similarly you can be "lucky" and have a critical illness but still be fit to work.

It is worth checking the policy document obviously but I would be highly surprised if CFS/ME was listed as a critical illness.

Weighty1

A critical illness policy will only cover conditions/illnesses which are mentioned in the policy documents/key features document.  The fact that you say it neither mentions ME nor excludes ME basically means it is almost certain that it won't be covered.  The only element of cover which can sometimes be used to claim upon is Total & Permanent Disability, however, you'd probably struggle to find a doctor/specialist who'd sign their name stating your husband's condition causes both total and permanent disability.  Often TPD isn't actually included on group schemes either, only personal policies.

On the plus side, there should be no issue with claiming on the income protection plan so depending on the scheme from his employer this could provide a significant degree of protection for a lengthy period of time.