Good Critical Illness Policies will normally cover children within the policy.  Why would you ask?  Surely children don’t need Critical Illness Insurance?  According to Scottish Provident’s recent claims settlement history, children’s critical illness was the fourth highest claim category after cancer, heart-attack and stroke.  The average age for claims was 11!  This statistic comes as a shock to most people and rightly so.  It’s therefore important that when considering a critical illness policy for yourself, you should make sure that your children are covered too.  The good news is that cover is normally given free of charge as an extra and no additional underwriting is required.

The level of benefit for children is usually a set amount or a percentage of the sum assured of the policy. For instance, Friends Provident pay up to half the amount of your own cover.  A maximum payout of £20,000 applies.  The benefit is payable only once for each child for a maximum of  3 children.

This type of cover is invaluable if your child has suffered a critical illness.  In these circumstances it is common for both parents to stop working to care for the child.  Nick Kirwan, Scottish Provident’s Protection Marketing Director says, “Work takes a back seat when your child becomes ill. You may need to cut your working hours or even stop working altogether”.  The money can be used for either additional treatment not available on the NHS, or simply to cover the usual monthly bills during the time you are off work.

Under normal circumstances, the policy is terminated once a claim is made but for children’s cover this is not the case.  You can make a claim and the policy will payout but more importantly your own cover will still remain in place and the premiums will be unaffected.

Not all insurers offer children’s critical illness cover within their policies so it is important to make sure that it is covered before you start paying for protection.  Because critical illness cover is such a complex product it is better still to get advice from a broker to make sure that the policy you buy offers you the best cover available for your premium.  Getting advice from the broker does not cost you anything as brokers are paid by the insurance companies.  If you would like a quotation click here