CRITICAL ILLNESS COVER
Personal Protection
Designed to pay a cash lump sum or a monthly family income if your client is diagnosed with a specified critical illness. Our Critical Illness Cover is part of our flexible menu plan. Choose a combination of covers with different amounts and terms, which can evolve to meet your clients’ changing needs.
Key benefits
- Simple, but comprehensive cover where it matters most. 30 main conditions and 10 additional conditions. Also include Children’s Critical Illness Cover and Children’s Life Cover.
- Scottish Widows Care, provided in partnership with RedArc, gives long-term practical advice and emotional support to policyholders and their families, from day one.
- Free Accidental Death Cover and Free Mortgage Cover while we process your clients’ application.
- Guaranteed Insurability Options so cover can increase without further medical underwriting.
- Free Replacement Cover on all joint life policies.
| Key details | |
|---|---|
Basis of cover |
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| Minimum term | 5 years |
| Minimum age when cover starts | 18 |
| Maximum age when cover starts | 64 |
| Maximum age when cover finishes | 70 next birthday |
| Minimum Sum Assured | £10,000 |
| Maximum Sum Assured | £3,000,000 |
| Minimum Family Income Benefit | £5,000 per year |
| Maximum Family Income Benefit | £150,000 per year |
| Premiums | Guaranteed |
| Total Permanent Disability | This can be selected at application stage. There are restrictions to the maximum amount we will pay out in respect of a Total Permanent Disability claim. Please see our Policy Summary (PDF, 2MB) for full details |
| Critical Illness Definitions | See the 30 full Critical Illness conditions and 10 additional conditions we cover |
Key documents
Policy Summary document (PDF, 2MB)
Guide to Critical Illness conditions (PDF, 442KB)
See all our protection documents in one place, including forms, guides and brochures.
Our Critical illness Cover also has
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We will pay the full sum assured for 30 critical illness conditions and we also have 10 additional payment critical illnesses. The additional payment will not be taken from the main sum assured. The payments for the additional conditions will be equal to £30,000 or 25% of the sum assured, whichever is lower, and will not affect the main sum assured.
If we pay out on an additional condition claim, we won’t pay any further claim for that additional condition in respect of the person covered, but they may still make a claim in relation to any of the other additional or full critical illness conditions.
If we pay out on a full critical illness condition the policy will end.
For full details of the conditions we cover please see the definitions section.
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Children’s Critical Illness Cover is automatically included with all of our Critical Illness Cover policies at no extra cost. It covers any natural child, step child, legally adopted child or any child the person covered is the legal guardian for. We’ll pay out £30,000 or 50% of the main sum assured (whichever is lower) if the child is diagnosed with one of the illnesses in our list of definitions and is covered under the policy after birth and before 22 years.
We also cover 5 specific children’s conditions. Cover excludes terminal illness and Total Permanent Disability. Any payments made under Children’s Critical Illness Cover will not impact on the main cover.
For full details regarding our Children’s Critical Illness Cover please see our Policy Summary (PDF, 2MB)
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Children’s Life Cover is automatically included with all of our Critical Illness Cover policies at no extra cost. A one-off payment of £10,000 will be paid in the event of the death of a child. It covers any natural child, step child, legally adopted child or any child the person covered is the legal guardian for. The child will be covered from 30 days until their 22nd birthday.
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Free Mortgage Cover is automatically included for new mortgages only and starts from the date we receive your client’s fully completed application form and direct debit instruction and the applicant has exchanged contracts (concluded missives in Scotland).
Free Mortgage Cover continues until the earlier of:
- The declining or postponement date of the application
- The start date of the policy
- The completion of the purchase
- The date a claim is made
- 90 days after the start of Free Mortgage Cover.
In the event of a claim we will pay the sum assured applied for up to a maximum of £500,000 for critical illness. The claim received must meet the claims criteria for one of our specified Critical Illnesses.
For full details regarding Free Mortgage Cover, including eligibility and exclusions please see our leaflet (PDF, 500KB)
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This option allows your client to increase the sum assured in certain circumstances without further underwriting provided the original cover was issued on our standard terms. Your client can use their Guaranteed Insurability Option when any of the following events occur:
- Marriage/Civil Partnership
- Divorce/Dissolution of a civil partnership
- Birth of a child, adoption or becoming a legal guardian for a child
- Mortgage increase
- Promotion or salary increase
For full details regarding Guaranteed Insurability Options including eligibility, restrictions and limits please see our Policy Provisions (PDF, 2MB)
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Replacement Cover is automatically included on all Critical Illness Cover polices set up on a joint life basis. In the event of a claim this option allows the life who has not claimed to take out a new single life policy for the remaining term of their original policy without the need for further underwriting.
When exercising this option, your client must apply for the policy within 3 months from the date we paid the claim. The original terms and conditions will apply to the new policy, the only difference will be the premiums – they’ll be based on the rates, life assured's age and the remaining policy term at the time the replacement policy is taken out.
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Premium Protection protects your client’s policy premiums so that they are paid if they suffer an illness, disability or accident which leaves them unable to work. This option can only be added at the time the policy is taken out at an extra cost. It can be removed at any time but can’t be added in again once it has been removed.
The minimum age when cover starts is 18, the maximum age that cover starts is 60.
In the event of a claim we will start to pay the premiums for the policy holder after 26 weeks and continue to pay the premiums until the policy holder returns to work, reaches age 70, or the policy ends, whichever is sooner.
Cover will end 26 weeks before the policy holder’s 70th birthday (if payments are already being made as part of a claim these will continue to be made until the 70th birthday). For Joint Life cases Premium Protection can be selected for one or both lives (cover stops for both lives when the older person reaches age 70).
For full details regarding Premium Protection please see our Policy Provisions (PDF, 2MB)
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Scottish Widows Care, provided in partnership with RedArc, gives your client and their family access to practical advice and emotional support from the day the policy starts and for as long as it’s needed. See how we support your clients
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Our protection policies are flexible and can be adapted at any time during the policy. This flexibility means your clients can apply to make changes to their cover as their protection needs change without having to cancel the existing cover first.
Our protection policies are also portable. Where two people have policies within the same plan, they have the option to split the plan and move policies into a new plan should they wish.