Comment: Do I really need critical illness cover?

Karen Anderson, Independent Financial Adviser, looks at critical illness cover.

Most people will probably have life insurance for when you die. But what insurance do you have in case you live?

Considering what could happen

Finding out you have a critical illness is devastating. Discovering that you don’t have the right protection in place to help you get through it financially doesn’t bear thinking about.

We’ve seen that, thanks to medical advances, survival rates for critical illnesses are improving, which is great news. However life often changes dramatically after diagnosis, not just emotionally, but financially too.

Mortgage payments, council tax, childcare costs, food and utility bills are just some of the regular payments that still have to be made. 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 well 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 would give you peace of mind that if the worst happened, you’d be covered.

We think nothing of insuring our phones, our homes, our pets and our holidays, but sometimes we forget to insure the most important thing, ourselves.

Conclusion

Although there is always something else to insure, perhaps it’s time to make insuring ourselves, our health and our family a priority.

Karen Anderson, Independent Financial Adviser