Critical illness cover - successful claim
Discussion
Afternoon and a very happy new year to everyone! This is an interesting sub forum and I've appreciated learning from a lot of posts, so I thought I would share the below in the hope it's useful for someone.
In late October I had the surprise news that there was a 4cm tumour growing in one of my kidneys and I'm actually recovering from the surgery to remove the offending kidney! In the early stage of the process before all the scans/tests were completed there were a few weeks where I was facing a range of possibilities, extremes being "it's nothing serious" to "you have 6 months to live". At that point I started checking life insurance and similar policies as main concern is how my family would manage if I was no longer around to work/earn.
This confirmed I had (hopefully) sufficient life insurance in place, but also a critical illness policy which I opted into as an employee benefit. I was able to make a claim and this was successful, I received the payout a few days before going in for surgery. What does this mean for my family?
It's enough for a house deposit which we had been unable to save for, it could fund a sabbatical to spend extra time together as a family, etc. Not quite a life changing amount but pretty close.
So to the point of this post (at last!), if you have recently got married, had children, taken on new family responsibility, etc, take a few minutes and review your life insurance and similar cover, especially where you have available employee benefits that may have different levels available or opt in/outs. You just never know what life is going to throw your way.
In late October I had the surprise news that there was a 4cm tumour growing in one of my kidneys and I'm actually recovering from the surgery to remove the offending kidney! In the early stage of the process before all the scans/tests were completed there were a few weeks where I was facing a range of possibilities, extremes being "it's nothing serious" to "you have 6 months to live". At that point I started checking life insurance and similar policies as main concern is how my family would manage if I was no longer around to work/earn.
This confirmed I had (hopefully) sufficient life insurance in place, but also a critical illness policy which I opted into as an employee benefit. I was able to make a claim and this was successful, I received the payout a few days before going in for surgery. What does this mean for my family?
It's enough for a house deposit which we had been unable to save for, it could fund a sabbatical to spend extra time together as a family, etc. Not quite a life changing amount but pretty close.
So to the point of this post (at last!), if you have recently got married, had children, taken on new family responsibility, etc, take a few minutes and review your life insurance and similar cover, especially where you have available employee benefits that may have different levels available or opt in/outs. You just never know what life is going to throw your way.
I agree, what an excellent post and it’s great to hear about successful claims. People quite often forget they have critical illness cover as we have helped several people claim way after the event.
Congratulations on your recovery and do check if you still have cover with work as if it’s a group cic scheme you should have.
Congratulations on your recovery and do check if you still have cover with work as if it’s a group cic scheme you should have.
Rather timely post. I was diagnosed with a degenerative brain condition early in 2025 and my insurance company are being total arses. We took out the policy in January 2000, it’s not like I’m trying to pull a fast one. I’ve left it with my solicitor, who has been great.
My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I’ve had better years.
My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I’ve had better years.
TrevorHill said:
Rather timely post. I was diagnosed with a degenerative brain condition early in 2025 and my insurance company are being total arses. We took out the policy in January 2000, it s not like I m trying to pull a fast one. I ve left it with my solicitor, who has been great.
My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I ve had better years.
Sounds like a rough year for sure, and maybe some tough times ahead. Wishing you all the best.My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I ve had better years.
Theclarinettist said:
TrevorHill said:
Rather timely post. I was diagnosed with a degenerative brain condition early in 2025 and my insurance company are being total arses. We took out the policy in January 2000, it s not like I m trying to pull a fast one. I ve left it with my solicitor, who has been great.
My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I ve had better years.
Sounds like a rough year for sure, and maybe some tough times ahead. Wishing you all the best.My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I ve had better years.
I went to pieces after it was confirmed. Now I really don’t think about it, or at least I’m not overthinking it.
Your health really is your wealth.
We decided to take out CIC when i bought a house with my now wife 6 years ago, it wasn't cheap but we figured it would be worth it, it nearly came to frutation when my wife had a cancer scare but thankfully it turned out ok but it's good to know it's there if we need it.
My supervisor who was as far as i'm aware perfectly healthy when he had a heart attack a few years ago, he had cover and it paid off his mortgage
My supervisor who was as far as i'm aware perfectly healthy when he had a heart attack a few years ago, he had cover and it paid off his mortgage
Congrats OP for having the foresight to take out a CIC policy, it's great to hear you got your claim sorted. I hope you recover well going forward.
Up until very recently, I sold these policies , as well as IP and Life insurance (have now moved into QC to ensure the quality of advice is good)
My advice to anyone is get as much as you can afford and are comfortable paying each month.
The best amount ideally is enough to clear off the mortgage in full so it's no longer a worry if something goes wrong. But, 2 or 3 years worth of bills is advised, as something like cancer can keep you off work this long while you recover (according to Macmillan).
Get the policy as 'early ' as you can as it becomes extremely expensive the older you get and make sure the premiums are guaranteed so they won't change as you get older or develop any other health conditions.
Steer clear of 'reviewable' premiums - they will go up as you get older etc.
If you're young, dont smoke and are generally in good health you'll be very surprised how affordable this can be.
I sold policies off the back of mortgage leads, it's a shame that many of the mortgage advisers weren't as clued up as Sarnie as it makes the job much easier if the MA is on the ball.
The amount of people who wouldn't take it out and would be absolutely screwed financially if anything happens was genuinely depressing! It'll never happen to me etc..
Up until very recently, I sold these policies , as well as IP and Life insurance (have now moved into QC to ensure the quality of advice is good)
My advice to anyone is get as much as you can afford and are comfortable paying each month.
The best amount ideally is enough to clear off the mortgage in full so it's no longer a worry if something goes wrong. But, 2 or 3 years worth of bills is advised, as something like cancer can keep you off work this long while you recover (according to Macmillan).
Get the policy as 'early ' as you can as it becomes extremely expensive the older you get and make sure the premiums are guaranteed so they won't change as you get older or develop any other health conditions.
Steer clear of 'reviewable' premiums - they will go up as you get older etc.
If you're young, dont smoke and are generally in good health you'll be very surprised how affordable this can be.
I sold policies off the back of mortgage leads, it's a shame that many of the mortgage advisers weren't as clued up as Sarnie as it makes the job much easier if the MA is on the ball.
The amount of people who wouldn't take it out and would be absolutely screwed financially if anything happens was genuinely depressing! It'll never happen to me etc..
TrevorHill said:
Rather timely post. I was diagnosed with a degenerative brain condition early in 2025 and my insurance company are being total arses. We took out the policy in January 2000, it s not like I m trying to pull a fast one. I ve left it with my solicitor, who has been great.
My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I ve had better years.
Which insurer is it matey, I’ll see if we can help?My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I ve had better years.
Theclarinettist said:
It would be interesting to hear from anyone in the know if there is a recommended/standard level of life insurance, say as a multiple of annual income. Of course this would need to be flexed for individual circumstances.
It’s down to your own circumstances tbh, such as kids, income, assets, debts etc. Too many people just pluck £100k out of think air on CTM and then later on realise it’s not enough.I’d say get some independent advice from a broker that doesn’t use loaded premiums as you’ll get a better deal and more choice that way.
If you need any help, then drop me a pm.
Sarnie said:
Great post!
I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer earlier this year and our CIC policy also paid out in full.
It's something I discuss with all our clients.
It can be expensive but some cover, even if it's not enough to clear your mortgage, is much better than none at all!
I didn’t realise you went through this Sarnie. Hope you are well mate. I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer earlier this year and our CIC policy also paid out in full.
It's something I discuss with all our clients.
It can be expensive but some cover, even if it's not enough to clear your mortgage, is much better than none at all!
PT1984 said:
I have to whole heartedly (pardon the pun) recommend Legal & General. They covered mitral valve repair. I was 39. We had our mortgage covered.
The only issue is I can no longer get critical illness cover!
Do your have access to group cover, as this is non underwritten. If not cic isn’t a definite no with all insurers but it wouldn’t be easy. The only issue is I can no longer get critical illness cover!
TrevorHill said:
My health insurance company has also been quite difficult. After years of only the odd doctors visit and nothing other routine maintenance they stopped paying out in September saying that I had reached my limit for the year. I had also snapped my Achilles in January 2025 and needed surgery. I ve had better years.
To be fair, that's not being difficult, that's just honouring the policy. You have a policy, it has an annual limit, and you've hit it. It's pretty common knowledge that unused annual limits in previous years don't get rolled over. TwigtheWonderkid said:
To be fair, that's not being difficult, that's just honouring the policy. You have a policy, it has an annual limit, and you've hit it. It's pretty common knowledge that unused annual limits in previous years don't get rolled over.
It’s a pretty poor policy where he has exceeded his annual limit for a snapped Achilles. Most don’t have an annual limit.I think the devil is in the detail with these policies. In my case it is a workplace ie group policy, which meant it was relatively cheap but also with various exclusions/pre-existing conditions etc.
On first reading it looked like I would hit the pre-existing condition clause but then realised that after 2 years of contributions most of those fell away.
Now that I have had a successful cancer claim, a load of new exclusions come into force. I've already renewed cover for another year but need to review these in detail to consider if the policy is still worth it after that.
Thanks to everyone for the replies 🙂
On first reading it looked like I would hit the pre-existing condition clause but then realised that after 2 years of contributions most of those fell away.
Now that I have had a successful cancer claim, a load of new exclusions come into force. I've already renewed cover for another year but need to review these in detail to consider if the policy is still worth it after that.
Thanks to everyone for the replies 🙂
siovey said:
Congrats OP for having the foresight to take out a CIC policy, it's great to hear you got your claim sorted. I hope you recover well going forward.
Up until very recently, I sold these policies , as well as IP and Life insurance (have now moved into QC to ensure the quality of advice is good)
My advice to anyone is get as much as you can afford and are comfortable paying each month.
The best amount ideally is enough to clear off the mortgage in full so it's no longer a worry if something goes wrong. But, 2 or 3 years worth of bills is advised, as something like cancer can keep you off work this long while you recover (according to Macmillan).
Get the policy as 'early ' as you can as it becomes extremely expensive the older you get and make sure the premiums are guaranteed so they won't change as you get older or develop any other health conditions.
Steer clear of 'reviewable' premiums - they will go up as you get older etc.
One of my few good financial decisions. Goes some way to clawback the bad ones (having children before sorting buying a house, getting proper career underway late in life, etc etc!)Up until very recently, I sold these policies , as well as IP and Life insurance (have now moved into QC to ensure the quality of advice is good)
My advice to anyone is get as much as you can afford and are comfortable paying each month.
The best amount ideally is enough to clear off the mortgage in full so it's no longer a worry if something goes wrong. But, 2 or 3 years worth of bills is advised, as something like cancer can keep you off work this long while you recover (according to Macmillan).
Get the policy as 'early ' as you can as it becomes extremely expensive the older you get and make sure the premiums are guaranteed so they won't change as you get older or develop any other health conditions.
Steer clear of 'reviewable' premiums - they will go up as you get older etc.
In my case the premium started really low but jumped up when I turned 40 or 41 - as a workplace scheme I guess it's priced by age bracket.
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