What is critical illness cover?
Critical illness cover can help protect you and your family if you are diagnosed with a serious illness.
But how does it work, how much does it cost, and is critical illness cover worth it?
Life insurance helps you give financial stability to your loved ones by paying out when you die.
But what if you become critically ill, need to spend time in hospital for treatment or become too ill to work? What would be the financial impact to you and your family?
That’s where critical illness cover comes in.
How does critical illness cover work?
Critical illness cover pays out if you’re diagnosed with a serious condition. At Beagle Street, we pay out if you’re diagnosed with one of the illnesses or conditions listed in our policy terms and conditions.
The payout you receive from a Beagle Street critical illness policy could be up to £300,000 (this is your “sum assured”). The exact amount will depend on your age, health status and how much you’re happy to pay each month. We’ll tell you how much your sum assured is before you take out your policy.
You can use this payout to cover your everyday expenses as well as any additional costs that you might incur because of your diagnosis, such as medical or care costs. This will give you peace of mind to focus on recovering or spending time with your family.
At Beagle Street you can add critical illness cover when you apply for a new life insurance policy.
Do I need “Additional Critical Illness” or “Life Insurance with Critical Illness”?
At Beagle Street, we offer two types of adult critical illness cover: additional critical illness and life insurance with critical illness. You must have a Beagle Street life insurance policy in your name to take out either.
Life Insurance and Additional Critical Illness
This is an add-on to your life insurance policy so comes with a separate sum assured that pays out if you’re diagnosed with a critical illness.
If you make a successful critical illness claim, this cover will finish but your life insurance policy will continue.
Your life insurance policy will only pay out if you die or are diagnosed as terminally ill.
Life Insurance with Critical Illness
If you take out this cover, you’re adding an extra payout option to your life insurance policy. You’ll receive the sum assured if you die or become terminally ill, or if you have an earlier critical illness diagnosis.
So, the policy pays the sum assured if:
- you die, or
- you’re diagnosed as being terminally ill (having less than 12 months to live), or
- you’re diagnosed with a critical illness from the list of conditions covered
Once the payout has been made, the life insurance policy has ended and your premiums will stop.
What is children’s critical illness?
Children’s critical illness pays out part of the sum assured from your policy if one of your children becomes critically ill with one of the conditions we cover, which are listed in our policy terms and conditions.
At Beagle Street, the children’s critical illness payout is 25% of your own critical illness cover, up to a maximum of £25,000.
You need to have critical illness cover to qualify. It covers all your children, including children you might have in the future!
It doesn’t affect your life insurance policy or your own critical illness cover, and you’ll still get any payouts you’re due if something happens to you.
How much does critical illness cover cost?
The premium you pay for critical illness will be separate from the premium you pay for your life insurance policy. How much you pay for critical illness will depend on factors like your age, your health status and the sum assured (payout amount) you think you might need. This will be agreed when you take out your policy.
Should I get critical illness cover?
Critical illness cover can give you and your family peace of mind that your everyday costs will be covered if you are diagnosed with a serious illness and become too ill to work or if you’re suddenly faced with medical expenses.
It can also give you the chance to spend valuable time with your family and friends when you need it most.
But it is an extra cost to consider.
When weighing up the decision, it’s worth reviewing your household budget and working out what you can afford. You might be more comfortable taking out a lower amount of cover so that you have lower premiums to pay, or you might feel safer with a higher sum assured and be happy to pay the higher premiums.
Why choose Beagle Street for your critical illness cover?
At Beagle Street we offer fixed premiums with all our policies, which means they don’t go up as you get older or if your health changes (unless you request changes to your policy). Those premiums are usually lower if you’re younger so taking out a policy earlier can mean lower monthly payments throughout the length of the policy.
Want to find out how much you can get covered for? Use our quick quote tool to find out, with no obligation to go ahead with the quote!
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