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What is Critical Illness Cover?

Critical illness cover is used to insure yourself against a variety of critical illnesses covered by your policy.

The importance of critical illness cover

Many people take out critical illness cover with their life insurance policy, but it can also be purchased as a standalone product.

Critical illness cover can be taken out to protect your family and cover your income should you be unable to work due to a critical illness. You can use critical illness cover to pay off your mortgage or any other debts.

In the event that you were to suffer from a critical illness that is covered under your policy, you would receive a lump sum.

Conditions covered

Critical illness insurance will cover a number of different conditions under the policy, the insurers we use cover between 30 to 46 conditions, however there are many other insurers who will cover less, so when buying a critical illness policy always check how many conditions the insurer will cover.

Although the conditions covered will vary between insurers, they will all cover:

• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Cancer

Claiming a critical illness pay-out

The illness you are claiming for must meet the definition of your policy to be approved. For example: if you were diagnosed with a very low level of cancer where it is contained in one cell and is unlikely to spread, you may not be covered.

The critical illness policy should pay out if the cancer has spread to the surrounding cells. It is important to remember that critical illness life cover will only pay out when the illness becomes critical.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) ensure that every insurers' policy definitions meet their criteria which means that the policy is easy to understand and will guarantee to pay out as long as you get the illness to the specified severity.

Critical illness cover from our insurers

We provide quotes from 10 of the top UK life insurance providers, based on their claims statistics and the level of cover that they provide for their critical illness life insurance. Most of the insurers we use have paid out over 90% of critical illness cases and many have a 5 Star Defaqto Rating because of the cover they provide.

Learn more about critical illness cover