Critical Illness Cover - suggestions?

fullofcold

Just want to add to this, most Critical Illness policies automatically include life cover because they used to have a caveat that stated you had to survive 14 days after being diagnosed critically ill for the policy paid out.  This was deemed unfair so instead of removing the survival period they added in life at no extra cost so that if you died within those 14 days the policy would pay out.  Therefore a critical illness policy should always be put into trust also.

Just to add another note the life cover element of your Critical Illness policy would be costing peanuts.  The most expensive part is the critical illness cover because for most people you are around 4 x more likely to be diagnosed critically ill than die, and on top of that you are 14 x more likely to be off work 2 months or more from an illness or accident which may not be a critical illness.

Weighty1

portoman said:

So PHI is private health insurance? I can't find any like that that covers salaries, only treatments etc.

PHI (permanent health insurance) is a fairly archaic term. Insurers typically call it income protection, however, "IP" comes in various forms, including accident, sickness, unemployment cover, now often called Short Term Income Protection.  PHI means that it is a contract which permanently binds the insurance company to the terms agreed when the plan went in force and typically pays out for as long as any illness lasts.  Average claims last just over 6-years!  This is the gold standard of income protection policies

Weighty1

fullofcold said:

annabanana82 said:

Sandtree said:

portoman said:

The reason I went for CI was because I didn't think life insurance covers people for illnesses

I think this alone says that you should go to an advisory protection insurance broker to assess your needs, current coverage and discuss alternatives.

Life insurance (rather than assurance - aka whole of life) pays out if you die before a certain date, some pay if you get given a terminal illness diagnosis with a prognosis of less than 1 year.

CI - pays a lump sum if you get one of a list of conditions to a specified level, some better ones can included a total disablement clause too. However, get something thats not on the list or have a heart condition that doesnt generate the relevant markers in your blood and they dont pay

PHI - provides a salary replacement whilst you are too sick/injured to work irrespective of the cause (exc pre-existing conditions, self harm etc) and will continue paying that money for as long as you are ill until a fixed date (often your 65th birthday or such)

Personally, I think PHI is more important than CI because it gives a true salary replacement which pontentially could keep on going for 30 years. However, there are some that are “lucky” and get a CI payment with a condition that doesnt stop them working long term but the fact it pays off their mortgage or such enables them to make some different life choices.

We were in a similar position, my Husband was a stay at home Dad so PHI wouldn't apply.
The CI pay out after his Heart attack was very helpful though, especially as we had only paid in 14 months though we were paying £100 a month. 
We chose not to pay off the mortgage as its quite affordable but we do have a very healthy nest egg, and helps pay for jobs my Husband now struggles with.

Not true income protection can cover stay at home people, it just depends on the provider and normally comes with a caveat that they will only pay up to x amount per month as most providers now recognise that stay at home parents/house people also have a monthly financial value (cleaning/child care/etc)

It may not be true but you'd generally be in a better position having a critical illness policy than income protection UNLESS you are one of the very few people who is totally incapacitated.  The activities of daily living which are normally used to confirm incapacity for housepersons are so difficult to claim against that you'd almost need to be in a vegetative state to be able to claim.  Cancer, no claim, heart attack, no claim, mild stroke, no claim, ms, no claim BUT if unable to walk 200m, climb a flight of twelve stairs get in and out of a standard saloon car then there would be a claim.  Me personally, I think in this instance it's one of the few times that critical illness is better than income protection.

portoman

Again, I appreciate your comments, but when I have searched on price comparison sites, I have not been possible to find separate critical illness cover, and it has only been offered as an add in to the life cover which then takes it up to over £50 a month, which I'm not going to pay.

Also, you can't get mortgage protection to cover you for unemployment at the moment.

dunstonh

Again, I appreciate your comments, but when I have searched on price comparison sites, I have not been possible to find separate critical illness cover, and it has only been offered as an add in to the life cover which then takes it up to over £50 a month, which I'm not going to pay.

Comparison sites are not whole of market.  They offer a selection of products that they can make the most money on.   So, if you are not seeing it on the comparison sites you are looking at then it means they have chosen not to include it.     Several of the responses on this thread, are from those that deal in the whole of market.   So, answers tend to be on that basis.

Lots of products and providers won't appear on comparison sites.     Even where some do, they sometimes put a cut down version of their product on there.  (to lower the premiums to appear further up the list)

Also, you can't get mortgage protection to cover you for unemployment at the moment.

I thought that too but I saw an email in the week that indicated it is still available.   However, you can probably count the numbers on one hand.   And the cost reflects the risk as the email was about them increasing their premiums.

MightyMythop

Just to add a fried of mine had Life with CI cover with L&G - thought about cancelling it due to cost, 3 months later, heart attack & policy paid out £100K...so please think twice if you're considering cancelling.
As others have said Life with CI is the norm as the Life element is pennies to add to the CI cover so although it may be £50 currently, it's still likely to be c£48 for the CI cover alone so you may as well go "all in"! 

Polobird#1

I had a successful CI claim which fell under the Total & Permanent Disability part of the cover.  However it is for a mental Health illness which goes back 20 years but my CI claim was made in 2018 and only backdated to 2016 when I was diagnosed with PTSD.  How can I try to have the premiums backdated further than 2016. I have been to the Ombudsman who have agreed with Legal & General.  When I read the policy the wording for TPD is very mis-leading.  I found out that I had a claim while speaking to a Legal & General adviser.  I found out quite by accident.  I am now wondering if it is possible for me to have the premiums back-dated further, or what I can do about it. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

dunstonh

Polobird#1 said:

I had a successful CI claim which fell under the Total & Permanent Disability part of the cover.  However it is for a mental Health illness which goes back 20 years but my CI claim was made in 2018 and only backdated to 2016 when I was diagnosed with PTSD.  How can I try to have the premiums backdated further than 2016. I have been to the Ombudsman who have agreed with Legal & General.  When I read the policy the wording for TPD is very mis-leading.  I found out that I had a claim while speaking to a Legal & General adviser.  I found out quite by accident.  I am now wondering if it is possible for me to have the premiums back-dated further, or what I can do about it. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Can you repost on your own thread please as its unfair to hijack someone else's thread on an unrelated subject.

Weighty1

portoman said:

I can't actually remember how I got to LandG but I'm paying over £30 a month for it and I've had it for over ten years.

portoman said:

Again, I appreciate your comments, but when I have searched on price comparison sites, I have not been possible to find separate critical illness cover, and it has only been offered as an add in to the life cover which then takes it up to over £50 a month, which I'm not going to pay.

Also, you can't get mortgage protection to cover you for unemployment at the moment.

This is primarily caused by you being 10-years older.  If the quotes you are finding now are so much more expensive than the cover you already have it is NOT because life cover is include onto the critical illness cover, that would be a minimal part of the cost.  Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid premium being higher now than they were 10-years ago so it's either a case of keeping the existing plan or cancelling it, however, as a couple of people have already alluded to, whilst you may feel it's expensive now life would likely be infinitely worse if you were diagnosed with cancer and couldn't work for 2-years.

portoman

Yes I appreciate all your comments.

I have done a new search on a policy with LandG and the additional of critical illness cover, which seems to be any value which wish to include it as, can really ramp up the cost e.g. with the additional of CI paying at £37,000 (that was the figure suggested on the website, but I have no idea why), increases the cost to over £80 per month, as the CI is about £50 a month or more. So If I want CI to payout £50,000 for example, then the premium is over £100 a month.