Term assurance

Adding critical illness cover to your term assurance policy protects your income if you become too ill to work. It applies to specific illnesses and only pays out if you’re diagnosed during the term of your policy.

In some cases, cover also provides for children up to the age of 18, or up to 21 if they’re in full-time education.

What illnesses are covered?

It depends on your policy and policy provider, so make sure critical illness cover offers the benefits you want. If you’re diagnosed with an illness that isn’t included, you won’t get anything. Speak with your policy provider if there’s anything you’re not sure about.

These are some of the illnesses most often covered – but remember they might not all apply. Some types of illness, like cancer or stroke, may not be covered at all:

• Alzheimer's disease
• Aorta graft surgery
• Aplastic anaemia
• Bacterial meningitis
• Benign brain tumour
• Blindness
• Cancer
• Cardiomyopathy
• Coma
• Coronary artery by-pass surgery
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
• Deafness
• Dementia
• Encephalitis
• Heart attack
• Heart valve replacement or repair
• Kidney failure
• Liver failure
• Loss of hand or foot
• Loss of speech
• Major organ transplant
• Motor neurone disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Multiple system atrophy
• Open heart surgery
• Paralysis of a limb
• Parkinson’s disease
• Primary pulmonary hypertension
• Progressive supranuclear palsy
• Removal of an eyeball
• Respiratory failure
• Stroke
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Third degree burns
• Total and Permanent Disability
• Traumatic head injury

What’s not covered?

Critical illness cover usually has some conditions that aren’t covered. They’ll vary between policies, and you’ll find them listed in the terms and conditions. The most common ones are linked to:

• Aviation
• Criminal acts
• Drug abuse
• Failure to follow medical advice
• Hazardous sports and pastimes
• HIV/AIDS
• Living abroad
• Self-inflicted injury
• War and civil commotion

If you’re sick or injured and unable to work, this benefit lets you temporarily stop paying premiums. In most cases, you’ll have to keep paying for a time, called a ‘waiting’ or ‘deferred’ period. You’ll have to start paying premiums again when one of these applies:

• you recover
• your policy benefits become payable
• the waiver of premium benefit finishes
• you reach a specified age

This is similar to critical illness cover — it provides you with an income if you’re unable to work. It pays out if you become totally and permanently disabled. Most options will feature a deferred period before any benefits are paid out.

This gives you a guarantee that you can, within certain circumstances, increase the amount of cover your term policy provides without providing any more medical evidence. It might also include what’s called ‘continuation options’, which let you extend the term covered. You need to be aware that there will be limits in place and check with your provider whether this option is available to or suitable for you.

This is a way to protect the value of your term assurance policy from the effects of inflation. It increases premiums and life cover in line with a cost of living index like the Retail Prices Index (RPI) or Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

Some policies may pay out if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness during the term, and you are given less than 12 months to live.