Reassurance for you and the ones you love
At MoneySuperMarket we don't offer critical illness cover separately, but we can help you take it out alongside life insurance as additional cover. To give you and your family the peace of mind you deserve, we work with a range of leading life insurance providers, including:
Critical illness cover is a form of insurance that pays out a tax-free lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a serious medical condition.
It’s designed to help you deal with the financial implications of your illness, such as having to pay medical bills or adapt your home to your changing needs.
Critical illness cover can offer valuable financial support if you become seriously ill – which can be particularly helpful if you don’t have significant savings to fall back on. The money can be used to cover costs such as:
"Critical illness cover protects you when you are diagnosed with a serious illness such as cancer, or suffer a heart attack or stroke. The lump sum payout can provide valuable financial support and could be used to pay household bills, cover loss of earnings or pay for private medical treatment. The value of the cover can be tailored to suit your personal needs. Don’t forget choosing fully comprehensive cover and paying annually can bring costs down."
- Neal Cross, senior commercial performance manager for life insurance
When working out how much cover you need on a critical illness insurance policy, you need to consider the level of financial support you and your dependants would require if you weren’t able to earn an income due to your illness. Things to think about include:
When you take out critical illness cover alongside a standard life insurance policy, you can choose whether you want your policy to protect just you or you and your partner:
Critical illness cover that is added to a life insurance policy. With additional cover, you receive a critical illness insurance payout if you’re diagnosed with a condition included on your policy and your loved ones still receive a payout if you pass away within the policy term
Joint life insurance covers two people and is designed for couples. This cover is generally cheaper than taking out two separate policies, but only pay out on the first death or critical illness diagnosis
We work with leading UK life insurance providers and will match your cover needs to some of the best deals on the market
80% of our customers have the option to ‘buy now’, without medical exams or additional documentation, for the price quoted
MoneySuperMarket has helped more than 200,000 families feel financially protected with life insurance over the past four years
Unlike some of our competitors, MoneySuperMarket is not owned by an insurance company. So we can offer the best value, with savings delivered straight to you.
We combine independence, so we can negotiate the best prices, with excellent technology, to find the best value products and services.
Depending on the policy you choose, critical illness insurance can cover a range of conditions, including:
Heart attacks, strokes, and some types of cancer are included on most policies
Multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, loss of limbs, organ failures, permanent disabilities, traumatic head injuries, Parkinson’s – some policies cover up to 50 conditions
Pre-existing conditions, hereditary illnesses, and temporary illnesses are generally excluded
The cost of critical illness cover will depend heavily on your age – premiums generally climb as you get older, due to the increased risk of illness.
| Monthly cost of level term life insurance policy for single policy2 | Monthly cost of level term life insurance policy plus critical illness cover2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 18-29 | £11.71 | £28.90 |
| 30-39 | £18.23 | £44.94 |
| 40-49 | £29.94 | £72.04 |
| 50-59 | £47.64 | £110.02 |
| 60+ | £81.37 | £164.35 |
2 Average costs based on MoneySuperMarket customers searching for level-term single life insurance, with and without critical illness cover as an additional policy, and a Life cover amount sum insured of £150,000 to £200,000, between 1st Jan and 31st December 2021
To be eligible to take out UK critical illness insurance, you will generally need to be a UK resident. Some providers may have maximum age limits on their policies.
Some conditions may be excluded from cover based on your medical history.
Finding the right critical illness cover is quick and simple – you’ll just need to give us a little information about yourself, so be sure to have these details to hand:
We’ll need some details about you and your family’s health and medical history, including any pre-existing medical conditions.
The younger you are when you take out life insurance, the cheaper it tends to be. The type of work you do can also affect the price.
If you’d like joint cover, you’ll need to have information to hand about your partner’s health, lifestyle and work.
We run our life insurance service with our partner, LifeSearch. If you’d like some guidance about what kind of cover you need, you can talk to them free of charge. Give them a call on 0800 197 3178.
Their opening hours are:
Our comparison service makes it quick and easy to find the right life insurance policy, with or without critical illness cover.
We’ll browse the market for deals from leading UK insurance providers to find the cover you require at our lowest possible price.
Choose the policy for you and click through to complete the provider’s application process.
You and your partner can take out a joint critical illness cover policy. Think carefully about how you want the policy to work. With most joint policies you will only be allowed a single claim. So, for example, if you were to be diagnosed with a critical illness and then claimed on the plan the policy would end and your partner would no longer have the cover. In some cases however, you can buy joint policies that continue to cover the second person – even after a partner has claimed.
Some insurers offer automatic cover for your children under their critical illness policy, while others may add family cover at a lower cost – either way you should check beforehand if you think it’s something you might need.
What you should keep an eye out for is the amount of cover your child will get – it could be a range, a set amount or even a specific percentage of the amount of cover you have for yourself.
Some provider may offer standalone critical illness cover. However, most people take it out alongside life insurance because it’s generally cheaper to buy the two types of cover together.
Most insurers will let you adjust the level of cover you have with your policy, as well as the duration of the policy term and any extras you might want to add or remove. However you shouldn’t automatically assume this is the case – check with your insurer to be certain.
Your critical illness policy is unlikely to have a cash-in clause, either during or at the end of the term.
If you have combined critical illness cover as part of your life insurance policy you’ll only get one pay-out – which means if you claim for a critical illness your life insurance policy will end.
However, if you have additional critical illness cover with your life insurance policy, you’ll get a pay-out both when you’re diagnosed with the illness and when you pass away.
The purpose of the lump sum is generally to pay for medical costs or treatment to improve your quality of life, but you’re free to spend it however you would like.
Your chosen insurer will have a list of all the critical conditions covered on your policy on their website. The conditions covered can vary significantly between insurers and policies, so read the small print.
No. Once you have claimed and a lump sum is paid out your coverage under the policy automatically ends.
Not all insurers will offer critical illness cover if you have a pre-existing condition, and you may have to pay more in premiums for the policy. If you do have a pre-existing condition you should always declare it, or your insurer might refuse any future claims you make.
Terminal illness cover is different to critical illness cover, and is usually included as standard in life insurance policies. It means your insurer pays out if your doctor has confirmed you have a terminal condition and you’re likely to pass away within 12 months.
How much you pay for critical illness cover will depend on factors including:
• Your age – the younger you are, the less you should pay
• Your occupation – some jobs are seen as higher risk
• Your lifestyle – certain habits such as smoking will push premiums up
• Your medical history – having a clean bill of health will reduce your premiums
• The type of policy you want – individual or joint
• The level of cover – more cover means higher premiums
You work hard to earn your money, and we don’t think you should waste a penny of it paying over the odds on your household bills. That’s why at MoneySuperMarket, we’re on a mission to save Britain money.
So how do we make our money? In a nutshell, when you use us to buy something, we get a reward from the company you’re buying from.
You might be wondering if we work with all the companies in the market, or if our commercial relationships with our partners might make us feature one company above another. We’ve got nothing to hide, and we want to give you clear answers when it comes to questions like these, so we’ve pulled together everything you need to know on this page.
