(statistics provided from Cancer Research UK, October 2022)
More of us than ever before will now suffer a Critical Illness at some point during our lives. It is important to consider what financial impact this could have on you and your family.
Finding out you have a critical illness is devastating and can often be life changing – not only for you, but for your whole family. Discovering you don’t have the required protection in place just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Words like cancer, stroke and heart attack immediately make us think of the worst. For some people, being diagnosed with such an illness, can change their lives dramatically. Would you be able, or want to go back to work in the same capacity as you do now?
Over recent years we’ve seen that survival rates for critical illnesses are improving – which is great news – but life often changes dramatically after diagnosis. Not just emotionally but financially too.
Critical Illness policies can provide a vital tax free lump sum, to help you meet regular payments that still have to be made, for example; council tax, childcare costs, food and utility bills etc. There might even be extra things to pay for such as medication, or changes to the home. Sick pay from your employer might help, but only for a short period, and state benefits only offer a limited amount.
Many people who are well enough to return to work can’t always work the same hours as before, so they could experience a long-term drop in income. It would be nice to know there was a financial cushion to fall back on if this happened, to make life that little bit easier. It would mean you could concentrate on getting better.
This is where Critical Illness Cover can really help. Even a little bit is better than none at all. It aims to provide you with some peace of mind that if the worst happened, you’d be covered.
However, critical illness policies can vary greatly in terms of the number of illnesses they cover and the added benefits provided and we believe it is important you take advice before deciding on the most suitable policy for you.
We can talk you through the different options and policy types to ensure you have the most appropriate level of cover to suit your budget.
