Serious Illness Cover FAQs

For most conditions, a typical critical illness policy would give you a payout for your full cover amount, or nothing at all. This can leave you with nothing to help you cope with an illness that’s having an impact on your life. We pay out differently. We give you a percentage of your cover amount – up to 100% - depending on how severe your condition is. This means we’re able to pay out on a wider range of illnesses - not just the debilitating or life-threatening ones covered by typical critical illness policies.

If you make a claim for a condition that pays out part of your cover amount, we keep covering you for the remaining amount. So if your condition gets worse, or you’re diagnosed with another, you can claim again. You can keep doing this until you’ve used up your whole cover amount.

If you make a successful claim, most insurers will pay out 100% of the cover amount and then stop your policy. If your policy included Life Cover, this could be reduced – or stop altogether. So if you needed to claim again, you might not be covered. And it could be expensive – or impossible – for you to buy the same amount of cover again.

We make sure we can protect you even after you make a claim. We don’t pay out your whole lump sum if you don’t need it. So, if you claim for a condition that’s not very severe, we pay out for part of the amount you’re covered for, and keep covering you for the remaining amount.

We even offer additional options to help you get the most from your cover. If you need both Life Cover and Serious Illness Cover, you could choose Protected Life Cover. It means that your amount of Life Cover will stay the same regardless of any Serious Illness Cover claims you make.

If you choose Comprehensive Serious Illness Cover you would be covered for over 170 conditions. With our Primary Serious Illness Cover, you would be covered for over 100 conditions. The typical critical illness policy only covers you for around 45 conditions¹.

	Primary	Comprehensive
Number of conditions covered	Over 100	Over 170
Severity level A - pays 100% of the benefit
Severity level B - pays 75% of the benefit
Severity level C - pays 50% of the benefit
Severity level D - pays 25% of the benefit
Severity level E - pays 15% of the benefit
Severity level F - pays 10% of the benefit
Severity level G - pays 5% of the benefit

We understand illness can affect any stage in life, which is why from 2016 all Serious Illness policies feature our Family Benefit. We include unique beenefits, such as Complications of Pregnancy, a range of Congenital Conditions, and a Child Funeral Contribution of £5,000, to help support our clients.

Source: ¹Hannover Re UK Life Branch February 2016

Once you've decided whether you'd like Primary or Comprehensive Serious Illness Cover, you can choose to add some extra options to your plan such as Serious Illness Booster or our range of additional covers and options.

Life insurance is protection that pays a lump sum to your loved ones if you die or are diagnosed with a terminal illness. Serious illness cover pays a lump sum benefit, if you are diagnosed with an illness we cover, to help see you through your recovery.

Yes, you can! Adding Optional Serious Illness Cover for Children to your plan can help protect your family against the financial impact of caring for your child if they get sick. If your child is diagnosed with one of the illnesses we cover, we give you a cash lump sum. We take the same severity-based approach to payouts as we do on adult cover. So the amount you get will be a percentage of your cover amount.

For children’s cover, you can choose a cover amount of between £10,000 and £100,000. If we pay out less than the cover amount, and your child’s illness gets worse, or they’re diagnosed with another illness, they would still be covered. We cover children from one month old. And, if they stay in full-time education, we’ll cover them until the plan anniversary after their 23rd birthday.

We cover more conditions than any other insurers. We also cover earlier stages of certain conditions. In some cases, we make partial payouts when you’re diagnosed, rather than making you wait until you have surgery or develop permanent symptoms. Together, this means you are 2^1/2 times more likely to get a payout from our Serious Illness Cover than you are from a typical critical illness policy.

Source: ¹Hannover Re UK Life Branch February 2016

If you make a successful claim, most insurers will pay out 100% of the cover amount and then stop your policy. If your policy includes Life Cover, this could be reduced - or stop altogether. So if you needed to claim again, you might not be covered. And it could be expensive – or impossible – for you to buy the same amount of cover again. We make sure we can protect you even after you’ve made a claim. We don’t pay out your whole lump sum if you don’t need it. So, if you claim for a condition that’s not very severe, we pay out for part of the amount you’re covered for, and keep covering you for the remaining amount.

We even offer additional cover options that top up your cover after you’ve made a claim. You don’t need to be reassessed, and we won’t increase your premium after you’ve made a claim.

Yes! If a doctor tells you that you have had a heart attack or a stroke, we pay out. We define medical conditions in the same way that the medical profession does. So, if your consultant diagnoses that you have had a heart attack or a stroke, we pay out. The amount we pay depends on the severity of your condition. It means we’re able to cover all types of heart attack and all strokes.