Just to recap, for a life insurance claim you have to be dead or in some cases terminally ill. For an income protection claim you have to be unable to work. For a critical illness claim you have to be diagnosed with a specified degree of severity as suffering from a critical illness and still be alive.
If you have a critical illness policy make sure you have the technical conditions brochure. You should get this before, or immediately after the policy commences but it is not always given out. This specifies what is and much more importantly is not a critical illness. when it happens take that guide with you and turn to the definition of a qualifying cancer or whatever it is that you have, show it to your doctor and just ask “have I got that or worse”. That’s what I did, and went on to claim with confidence.
Income protection (see previous posts) and critical illness policies are very important to YOU, because by definition you are still alive and share with any family that you may have in the benefits of the policy.
So some stats and comments
- More than 1,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK.
- For men born in 1930 the risk of cancer was 39 %, while for those born in 1960 it was 54 %. would you ignore a 54 % chance of something happening and remember this only covers the cancer risk, add the other diseases and it gets even higher.
- Every 2 minutes in the UK someone is born in the UK and has a heart attack. not necessarily the same person at the same time.
- 35 % of couples with children have no savings set aside for an emergency.
- 11 % of us have critical illness insurance compared with 39 % with pet insurance. nothing against pets and it is a good idea, ours is insured, but perhaps the priorities need looking at.
- 100 children every day are bereaved of a parent.
- Every 5 minutes someone in the UK suffers a stroke and 25 % of them are under age 65.
- On average people in the UK of working age have enough savings to last them 14 days.
Make sure that you are covered, whether by life insurance, income protection or a combination, and make sure that it is enough.