Family life during treatment
Life cover pays if you die. Critical illness cover pays while you are alive, which for parents is often the harder scenario to plan for. Treatment can mean months off work, hospital trips and days when you cannot do the school run.
Your partner may need time off to care for you and look after the children. A lump sum lets the household slow down without the mortgage or bills falling behind.
Think about practical costs that are easy to miss. Travel to a hospital some distance away, parking, childcare for appointments and meals on the go add up over months of treatment.
Cover for your children
Many adult critical illness policies include children's cover, paying a smaller sum if a child is diagnosed with a listed condition. The age range and amount vary. Some insurers also pay towards hospital stays or let you take time off to be with a seriously ill child.
Children's cover is a helpful extra, but compare it after the main cover. A strong adult policy matters most.
Children's cover usually ends at a set age, often in the late teens or early twenties. Check whether the policy lets an older child take out their own cover when it ends.
- Check the ages covered, from birth or later
- Look at the conditions included for children
- See whether hospital stay benefits are offered
- Check whether conditions present at birth are excluded
Deciding how much to cover
Some parents cover the whole mortgage, so the home is paid off if they are diagnosed. Others choose a smaller sum to replace a year or two of income. A smaller amount costs less and still gives breathing room.
Look at your sick pay, any income protection and your savings first. Critical illness cover then fills the gap those leave.
Some policies offer additional payments for less severe conditions, such as early-stage cancers. These partial payments can help even if the illness is caught early.
Combined or standalone
You can buy critical illness cover on its own or combined with life cover. A combined policy pays once, on whichever happens first. Two separate policies cost more but could pay out twice, once on diagnosis and again on death.
Read the definitions. Insurers word their cover for each condition differently, and the details decide whether a diagnosis qualifies.
If you have a partner, decide whether to cover one or both of you. A serious illness in either parent would change family life, so many couples choose cover for each.
How Hi Tomorrow helps parents choose critical illness cover
We compare the conditions covered, the definitions and the children's benefits across insurers on our panel. Then we suggest an amount that fits your budget and protects the parts of family life that matter most.
If you ever need to claim, we can help you gather the medical evidence and deal with the insurer.
We also look at income protection with you, so you can decide how to split your budget between a lump sum on diagnosis and a monthly income if you could not work.