Just found insurance

momuse

My husband was in hospital for neurological condition and he's at home now and I'm really struggling with everything. We had mortgage protection insurance with no illness cover. But recently I've found another policy he took out with aviva which has critical illness cover. I didnt know he had this. Could I claim on it? I'm worried because it says you have to be working immediately before you claim. Well he was working immediately before his illness, but not obviously his claim as I didn't know it existed.
So I don't know what to do. I don't have any documents for the policy, only the renewal form which I found recently among my husbands things.

DullGreyGuy

A renewal form? Not an annual statement?

CI is different to income protection in that it only covers certain illnesses at levels as specified in the policy book; these dont change over time which can mean policies become outdated as medical techniques change. 

Ultimately there is no harm in speaking to them, the claim is when he became ill with this illness. What they are stopping you from doing is if you were unfit to work by an illness not covered but then develop a second illness that is covered you cannot claim because its the former not the later thats taken you out of work.

Mark_d

The renewal form will have a policy number.  Give Aviva a call and try to make a claim.

It's possibly that your husband didn't renew the policy.  Maybe the policy won't cover your husband's diagnosis.  But you won't know for certain until you try to claim.

dunstonh

 But recently I've found another policy he took out with aviva which has critical illness cover. I didnt know he had this. Could I claim on it? I'm worried because it says you have to be working immediately before you claim.

Critical illness cover does not require you to be working.    Income protection can do.  So, are you are sure it is CIC and not income protection?     
Some policies are multi-segment.  i.e. you can have life assurance, CIC, PHI etc all within one plan.   So, the generic documentation may cover all segments available but it doesn't mean you have all the segments.

 I don't have any documents for the policy, only the renewal form which I found recently among my husbands things.

Critical illness cover doesn't renew apart from yearly renewable term assurance.   That is a rare option to come across as the vast majority are term based.  i..e you take them out for x years or to a certain age.

So, some clarification on the policy type and terms would be useful.   Aviva should be able to answer this.

momuse

Ah its mortgage protection insurance with critical illness cover - no other cover on it.

(He has another mortgage protection insurance with someone else which only has life cover and no critical illness, which is why I only just found out about it)

I'm just worried that it says he has to be working immediately before claiming, but he has a serious brain condition with ulcerative colitis and so he would not have been able to let me know about the other insurance policy. I guess I should have checked it before now, I've just been dealing with everything else.

chrisw

You need to speak to the insurance companies involved. I have found their advisers more than helpful in the past, talking me through the process rather than trying to avoid paying out.