Critical Illness Cover is generally available to anyone between the ages of 17 and 70. Usually, the younger you are at the start of the critical illness insurance policy, the premiums will be cheaper. Whereas life assurance policies will only pay out a lump sum if you die. Critical illness Insurance (also known as Critical Illness Cover) will pay a lump sum should you be diagnosed with any number of different critical illnesses or become permanently and totally disabled and unable to work so they both cover different things.
There are two main types of critical illness cover

1. Level term critical illness cover where the level of cover stays the same throughout the term of the policy. A term critical illness insurance policy is one that will pay out a lump sum.  This is paid if you are diagnosed with what is considered a critical illness.  Term critical illness cover remains fixed throughout the term of the policy. Widely used to protect interest only mortgages, loans and family income protection
    
2. Decreasing term critical illness cover where the level of cover decreases over the term of the policy, eventually ending up as nil. Widely used to protect repayment mortgages, loans.

Critical illness insurances is also often combined with life insurance, to offer the full protection package. Life and critical illness insurance is often little or no more expensive than critical illness on its own. It is also worth considering that by taking out critical illness on its own there, is a survival period that you have to survive for to ensure the policy pays out. This is often 14 days after you are diagnosed with the critical illness. However if you were to take critical illness life insurance combined you are ensured the payment as if you did not qualify for the critical illness payment then the life insurance would payout.

What is Children's Critical Illness Cover?

Why do I need Critical Illness Insurance?

• 35% of men and 46% of women who have cancer survive at least 5 years
• 78% of stroke sufferers survive more than a year.
• In 1999: in the UK 40,989 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, which is 136 for every 100,000 women
• 23,456 men were detected with lung cancer in the UK. This represents 83 cases per 100,000 men. 1,990 men were newly diagnosed with testicular cancer. This is a rate of 7 cases per 100,000 men.
• In 2000: there were 112,066 of all types of cancer diagnosed for women and 111,543 for men. At total of 223,609 new cases of cancer diagnosed.

(Source: Cancer Research UK)

If you suffered such a critical illness you would be able to obtain cover that would allow you to receive a lump sum to help with your recovery, medical costs, payment of your mortgage, regular payments to replace your income or even a sum to pay for modifications to your home such as widening your doors for a wheelchair if you were to become permanently disabled.

Please Note : Critical Illness Insurance is not the same as Terminal Illness insurance. Terminal Illness is free on most life insurance policies Critical Illness cover, however, can be quite expensive.

How much would Critical Illness Insurance/Critical Illness Cover cost?

What is Level Term Critical Illness Insurance?

What is Decreasing Term Critical Illness Insurance?

Decreasing Term Critical Illness Insurance is an insurance policy which will pay your family a cash lump sum payment should you be diagnosed with any number of different critical illnesses or become permanently and totally disabled and unable to work. The lump sum however, decreases over the term of the policy, eventually ending up as nil. This type of critical illness cover is commonly used to protect a repayment mortgage where the amount owed in reduced each year. The premiums are cheaper than level term critical illness insurance. Decreasing term critical illness cover is not suitable cover for interest only mortgages where the amount owed is not reduced each year. At the end of the term the critical illness cover ceases. It is not an investment policy and it has no maturity value. Decreasing critical illness insurance is often referred to as cheap critical illness cover. This kind of cheap life insurance is widely used to cover a mortgage when budget is a factor

What is Increasing Term Critical Illness Insurance?

How much Critical Illness Insurance do I need?

What is classed as a Critical Illness?

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Angioplasty
• Aorta graft surgery
• Aplastic anemia
• Bacterial Meningitis
• Benign brain tumour
• Blindness
• Cancer
• Coma
• Coronary artery by-pass surgery
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Deafness
• Dementia
• Heart attack
• Heart valve replacement or repair
• HIV or AIDs (assault, blood transfusion, occupational duties or accident)
• Keyhole heart surgery
• Kidney failure
• Loss of independent existence
• Loss of limbs
• Loss of speech
• Major organ transplant
• Motor Neurone disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Paralysis/Paraplegia
• Parkinson’s disease
• Stroke
• Third degree burns
• Total permanent disability
• Children Cover

Every critical illness policy will contain specific definitions of each illness. To avoid confusion, the Association of British Insurers has provided definitions of a range of core diseases, these are outlined in their 'Statement of Best Practise'.            

What does the “survival period” mean?

What is the Difference between Critical Illness Insurance and Income Protection Insurance?

Critical Illness Insurance provides a tax free lump sum of money upon diagnosis of a specified critical illness. This is not related to your occupation and by default does not provide cover should you be unable to work. One such example is that somebody may suffer from a heart attack or becomes blind/deaf, whilst this would more than likely have a huge impact on their life, it may not stop them from working, in this instance a Critical Illness Policy would pay out.
Income Protection Insurance provides a tax free monthly benefit if you are unable to work due to an illness or disability. This is not confined to any specific illnesses and will pay out once you've been off work for a set amount of time.