Group critical illness cover
Financial and emotional support when a critical illness strikes
Group critical illness cover
Financial and practical help for employees diagnosed with a critical illness that they’re covered for. When a claim is accepted, we’ll pay out a tax-free lump sum, providing much needed financial reassurance. For employees we’re covering, we’ll cover their eligible children as standard too.
Product details
| Minimum policy size | From 10 employees. |
| Maximum policy size | No maximum. |
| Types and amount of benefit available |
For employees - up to £500,000, or five times scheme earnings, whichever is lower. For spouses and registered civil partners - up to £250,000. |
| Children’s cover | The children of an insured employee are included as standard from birth to age 21. The amount of cover payable for an eligible child is the lower of 25% of the insured employee’s cover and £20,000. |
| Cover for spouse, partner or registered civil partner | An employee’s spouse, partner or registered civil partner can be covered for an additional cost. |
| Benefit levels | Choose different benefit levels for defined groups of employees. |
| Number of conditions covered |
Core cover – 15 conditions Additional cover – an extra 27 conditions, covering 42 conditions in total Children are covered for the same conditions as the insured employee. Plus, we also provide an additional 6 child-only core conditions. |
| Free limit |
This is the maximum amount of cover we can provide before we ask for medical underwriting. Up to £500,000 benefit for employees depending on policy size and benefit choices. |
| Employee eligibility | All employees, or a clearly defined group of employees. |
| Age range | 16 to 70. Maximum of state pension age for terminal illness and total and permanent disability conditions. |
| Premium payments | Can be made monthly or annually. |
| Cover during temporary absence |
Continued up to benefit termination age if absence is due to an illness or injury. Continued for three years if absence is for any other reason, such as sabbatical. Options to continue cover for other durations are also available. |
| Overseas cover | Continues during overseas business trips. Cover for overseas workers, residents and secondments individually considered. |
| Pre-existing conditions exclusion |
We won’t pay benefit for any specified condition for an insured person that was diagnosed or before they were covered by the scheme:
|
| Related conditions exclusion | The related conditions exclusion means we won’t pay benefit for any insured condition occurring within two years of an insured person being covered by the scheme that resulted from any related condition. The exclusion will apply even if a diagnosis has not been made before the insured person was covered. |
Conditions covered
The basic option is for a policy to include only the following 15 conditions:
- Cancer including Hodgkin’s disease - excluding less advanced cases
- Cancer second and subsequent – new and unrelated cancer
- Cardiac Arrest - with insertion of a defibrillator
- Coronary artery by-pass grafts - with large surgical incision through the chest wall or breastbone
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) - resulting in permanent symptoms
- Dementia (including Alzheimer’s Disease) - of specified severity.
- Heart attack - of specified severity
- Kidney failure - requiring dialysis
- Major organ transplant - from another donor
- Motor neurone disease - resulting in permanent symptoms
- Multiple sclerosis - with current clinical impairment
- Parkinson’s disease - resulting in permanent symptoms
- Progressive supranuclear palsy - resulting in permanent symptoms
- Stroke - resulting in symptoms lasting at least 24 hours
- Systemic lupus erythematosus - resulting in permanent symptoms
A policy could have the following additional 27 conditions as well as the standard 15 core conditions:
- Aorta graft - surgery requiring surgical replacement
- Aplastic anaemia - with permanent bone marrow failure
- Bacterial meningitis - resulting in permanent neurological deficit
- Balloon valvuloplasty - to relieve heart valvular abnormalities
- Benign brain tumour - resulting in either surgical removal or permanent symptoms
- Blindness - permanent and irreversible
- Cardiomyopathy - of specified severity
- Coma - resulting in permanent symptoms
- Coronary angioplasty - to treat specific conditions of specified severity
- Deafness - permanent and irreversible
- Encephalitis - resulting in permanent neurological deficit
- Heart surgery - with surgery to divide the breastbone
- Heart valve replacement or repair - requiring surgery
- HIV infection - caught in a specified country from a blood transfusion, a physical assault or at work in an eligible occupation.
- Liver failure - of advanced stage
- Loss of hand or foot - permanent physical severance
- Loss of independent existence (including muscular dystrophy) - permanent and irreversible
- Loss of speech - permanent and irreversible
- Paralysis of limb - total and irreversible
- Primary pulmonary arterial hypertension - of specified severity
- Pulmonary artery surgery - to excise and replace with a graft
- Respiratory failure - of advanced stage
- Rheumatoid arthritis - of specified severity
- Terminal illness - before state pension age where death is expected within 12 months
- Third degree burns - covering 20% of the surface area of the body or 20% of the face or head
- Total and permanent disability - before state pension age and of specified severity
- Traumatic head injury - resulting in permanent symptoms
With Additional cover we can:
- cover Total and Permanent Disability on an 'own occupation basis'; or
- cover Total and Permanent Disability on an 'any occupation basis'; or
- cover Total and Permanent Disability on a 'suited occupation basis'; or
- exclude cover for Total and Permanent Disability and Terminal Illness.
The quote will confirm the choice made by your client.
Children
Our policy automatically includes the insured employee’s children, from birth to 21 years, as long as:
- they don’t have a pre-existing or related condition
- they are not married or in a registered civil partnership
- and they are:
Children are covered for the same illnesses and conditions as the insured employee as well as for the following 6 child-only conditions:
- Cerebral palsy
- Child Loss of Independent Existence
- Cystic fibrosis
- Hydrocephalus – treated with insertion of a shunt
- Muscular Dystrophy
- Spina bifida
The benefit payable for a child under the policy is 25% of the employee’s insured benefit up to a maximum of £20,000. Cover for a child is dependent on the employee being covered under the policy.
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