Critical Illness Insurance Calculator

Our Critical Illness Calculator is here to help you answer some of the most common questions that everyone asks when considering taking out cover:

• How much cover can I get?
• How long can I be covered for?
• How much does Critical Illness Insurance cost?

With this tool, you can weigh up the different policy options and see the impact it will have on your monthly premiums by comparing instant online quotes from the top UK insurers.

What is Critical Illness Cover?

Critical Illness Cover is a type of insurance that will pay out a lump sum if a policyholder is diagnosed with a specified critical illness listed in the policy.

The insurers each have their own list of critical illnesses and injuries that they will cover and if you are diagnosed with one of them by a medical professional, you will be able to claim on your policy. The most common and serious medical conditions you can expect to be covered include:

• Cancers
• Heart attacks
• Strokes.

Critical Illness Insurance is designed to provide you with financial stability during such difficult times whether that be through paying off your outstanding mortgage balance or providing funds to help with lifestyle changes. The cover that you get from Critical Illness Insurance is not tied to your earnings, which means that you can choose to have as much cover as you want, similar to a Life Insurance policy.

Please be aware insurers’ lists of conditions covered can differ dramatically. Some insurers may not cover milder cases of severe conditions, even though they can be equally as debilitating.

For that reason, it is advised that you review the list of conditions that insurers cover before choosing the provider that’s right for you.

Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

Calculate Your Level of Critical Illness Cover

Figuring out the amount of Critical Illness Insurance you will need will depend on a range of factors including your budget, your choice of policy and the financial commitments you would like to cover with the payout should a claim arise.

The first thing you need to work out before deciding how much cover you need is what you intend your Critical Illness Insurance payout to cover. Here are some of the most common things claimants use their lump-sum payment for:

• Medical treatments
• Medical or domestic care
• Therapy and rehabilitation treatments
• Modifications to your home to accommodate a disability
• Medical equipment
• Everyday expenses
• Mortgage debt or loan payments

These are only some of the things that you may use your insurance payout to cover, so it is important that you take into consideration the consequences of becoming critically ill and what that may mean for your finances or your family’s.

To work out how much cover you need, take a close look at your current finances and work out how much you may require to meet outstanding loans and cover essential expenses should something happen.

If you are not sure how much you need we can help you decide upon a suitable level of cover, simply pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

Victoria Slade
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry

It’s very hard to calculate out how much you’d need in terms of a lump sum if you had to stop working after suffering a critical illness. If your payout is aligned with your mortgage, you may find that the policy repays the mortgage but leaves no other cash to keep up with household expenses while you can’t work.

You also don’t know how long an illness might keep you off work for. A payout of a few hundred thousand pounds might seem like a lot of money, but how many years would that replace your earnings for before you started to struggle? What if you were off work indefinitely?

Could Income Protection Insurance Be a Better Option?

Deciding exactly how much you would need as a lump sum payment is tricky. Many people choose Income Protection over Critical Illness Cover as it replaces a percentage of your monthly income if you can’t work rather than paying out a single lump sum. The best Income Protection policies pay out for any illness that prevents you from doing your own job and will continue to payout until retirement if you are unable to return to work.

For a much better understanding of the differences, read our Income Protection vs Critical Illness Cover Guide.

Calculating the Cost of Critical Illness Cover

Policy Options that Affect the Cost of Critical Illness Cover

Level of Cover

The amount you cover yourself for is the most important feature of your policy in terms of its cost. The more cover you apply for, the more you will pay in premiums. It’s generally a linear relationship between the amount of cover and the cost i.e. £200,000 of cover is likely to cost roughly twice that of £100,000 of cover.

Premium Type

There are different types of premiums that insurers offer that will affect the way your policy is priced throughout the length of your policy.

• Guaranteed Premiums will remain at the same price for your policy’s entire lifespan, providing you don’t request any changes to your cover.
• Age-Banded Premiums will increase with age at a set rate, although this rate may differ amongst insurers. Most insurers will have a premium table that presets your premium increase each year over the life of the policy as you get older.
• Reviewable Premiums are regularly reviewed by your insurance provider and will change depending on a number of factors, such as your health, your age and your insurer’s investment performance.

Policy Cease Age

The age at which you choose your Critical Illness Cover to end will affect your premiums because, as we get older, the risk increases of us being diagnosed with a serious illness. Reducing your policy’s cease age by a few years can reduce your premiums, but may put you at risk of being without cover when you need it most.

The Effect of Your Personal Circumstances

Age

As we get older our health declines, so applying for most personal insurance policies when you’re older will mean that your premiums will be more expensive. Similarly, the longer you need cover for and the older you’ll be when the policy ceases, the more you’ll pay in premiums.

Current State of Health

As well as your overall health, your height and weight is usually taken into consideration when working out your policy premiums.

Medical History

If you have suffered from any serious health conditions in the past, there are several actions that your insurer may take. They may either place an exclusion on the policy for any pre-existing conditions, cover pre-existing conditions for a higher premium, or offer the policy on a standard term if they don’t believe that the conditions was severe enough to warrant an exclusion.

The way insurers take account of pre-existing conditions depends on the condition, its severity, and their own appetite for this risk.

Smoker Status

Smoking can practically double your premiums. You will need to give up smoking for at least a full year in order to benefit from non-smoker premiums, otherwise you can expect to pay considerably more for your policy.

Lifestyle Choices

Most insurers will ask for some more personal information relating to your lifestyle, such as the amount of alcohol you regularly consume and whether you take part in any dangerous hobbies. If there are any aspects of your current lifestyle that may increase the risk of you being critically ill, your insurer may choose to either place an exclusion on your policy or increase your premiums.

Example of the Cost of Critical Illness Cover 2018

Below is an example from our Critical Illness Insurance Calculator that works out the most competitive monthly premiums. It assumes the individual is in good health, a non-smoker and wants Critical Illness Cover with Life Insurance that will remains level over 25 years.

As you can see, the price of Critical Illness Insurance increases considerably with age to reflect the fact that you’re more likely to suffer a critical illness the older you get.

£150,000 of Level Life and Critical Illness Cover Over 25 Years

Age 25

Age 45

£21.39 per month

£108.71 per month

Comparing Critical Illness Insurance Companies

Most Critical Illness Insurance policies cover a set of illnesses ‘as standard’, offering you a full payout if you meet the definition of that illness.

Some may pay out on a sliding scale depending on the severity of the illness. On top of the illnesses included ‘as standard’ there will often be ‘additional’ illnesses which offer a lower payout to reflect the fact that they’re less serious.

Aegon

Aegon’s Scotland-based UK operations are wholly owned and operated by Dutch insurer Aegon N.V.

• Maximum cover: £3 million
• Minimum age: 18
• Maximum age: 74
• Minimum policy length: 5 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Automatic, the lower of 50% of the sum insured or £25,000

AIG

American International Group, better known as AIG, is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries.

• Maximum cover: Unlimited
• Minimum age: 17
• Maximum age: 85 (maximum entry age 75)
• Minimum policy length: 3 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Automatic, the lower of 50% of the sum insured or £25,000

Aviva

Aviva was founded in 1797, but the Aviva brand as it is today was formed in 2000 by the merger of Norwich Union and CGU PLC.

• Maximum cover: £1 million
• Minimum age: 18
• Maximum age: Policy must end before 75th birthday (maximum entry age 64)
• Minimum policy length: 5 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Automatic, paying the lower of 50% of the sum insured or £25,000

Guardian

Guardian can trace its history back to 1821 when it was founded as Guardian Fire & Life.

It looks at Critical Illness Insurance differently, offering payouts for any form of malignant cancer with histological confirmation as diagnosed by a UK oncologist, including malignant skin cancer. Guardian also features a simplified claims process for heart attacks that only requires confirmation from a consultant that a heart attack has occurred to pay a heart attack claim, rather than needing extensive medical evidence to assess the severity of the attack.

• Maximum cover: £3 million
• Minimum age: 18
• Maximum age: Policy must end before 70th birthday (maximum entry age 65)
• Minimum policy length: 5 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Optional, paying any amount from £10,000 up to a maximum of the amount you choose for your own cover or an overall maximum of £100,000

Legal & General

L&G was formed as an insurance company for lawyers, by lawyers in 1836. It has since grown to become one of the country’s best-known financial services companies.

• Maximum cover: £1 million
• Minimum age: 18
• Maximum age: Policy must end before 70th birthday (maximum entry age 67)
• Minimum policy length: 2 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Automatic, paying the lower of 50% of the amount the adult policyholder is covered for or £25,000

Liverpool Victoria

LV is the UK’s largest friendly society, with more than 5.8 million customers, 1.1 million of whom are members.

• Maximum cover: £1 million
• Minimum age: 17
• Maximum age: Policy must end before 70th birthday (maximum entry age 64)
• Minimum policy length: 5 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Automatic, paying the lower of 50% of the amount the adult policyholder is covered for or £25,000

Royal London

Royal London previously operated Scottish Provident and Bright Grey as separated brands providing Critical Illness Insurance under the Royal London umbrella. From 2016, both have been merged into the main Royal London brand.

• Maximum cover: £3 million
• Minimum age: 18
• Maximum age: Policy must end before 85th birthday (maximum entry age 64)
• Minimum policy length: 5 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Automatic, paying the lower of 50% of the amount the adult policyholder is covered for or £50,000

Zurich

Zurich is a Swiss global insurance giant, operating in more than 170 countries. It employs around 55,000 employees worldwide, including 4,500 in the UK.

• Maximum cover: £7 million
• Survival period: 14 days
• Minimum age: 16
• Maximum age: Policy must end before 74th birthday (maximum entry age 69)
• Minimum policy length: 5 years
• Children’s Critical Illness Cover: Automatic, paying up to £25,000

Insurance providers that offer cover for a greater number of conditions may not necessarily cover critical illnesses that you have a higher chance of being diagnosed with, which can make comparing policies a complicated matter.

If you are struggling to work out the best option for your circumstances then please don’t hesitate to pop us a call on 📞 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

Samantha Haffenden-Angear
Independent Protection Expert at Drewberry