Critical Illness Cover Calculator

Critical illness insurance pays a tax-free lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of the serious conditions named in the policy, such as cancer, a heart attack, a stroke or multiple sclerosis. Most policies cover 40-60 named conditions, plus a further set that trigger a smaller partial payment. The money arrives in a single payment with no strings attached, which in practice tends to mean clearing a mortgage, funding treatment, or buying breathing space while you recover.

The product is easy to confuse with its neighbours. Life insurance pays on death. Income protection pays a monthly income whenever illness stops you working, whatever the cause. Critical illness pays once, on the first diagnosis of a listed condition, and the policy then ends. Because those events sit naturally together, life with critical illness policies are common, paying out on whichever happens first and costing less than two separate contracts.

How much cover you need depends on what the money has to do. The simplest approach takes the mortgage balance alone, on the basis that clearing the largest debt removes the largest worry. A fuller version adds 2-3 years' income on top to cover the recovery period, and the most generous sets the sum against every major financial commitment you hold. Average UK claims come in at around £60,000-£80,000, which gives a sense of the scale most people settle on.

Every insurer works from the ABI standard definitions for the core conditions, so heart attack, stroke, cancer of a specified severity, multiple sclerosis, kidney failure and major organ transplant appear on any policy worth buying. Beyond those the lists diverge. Parkinson's, motor neurone disease, Alzheimer's, deafness, blindness and paralysis are usually included. Less aggressive cancers such as DCIS, transient ischaemic attacks and partial paralysis vary by provider, and Aviva, Legal & General and Vitality each word them slightly differently. The Conditions Booklet makes dull reading, but it is the document that decides a claim.

Cover of this kind costs considerably more than life insurance, for the plain reason that you are more likely to claim on it. Premiums are set by age, health, family medical history, smoker status and the sum insured. Broker quotes published by iam insured (September 2026) put £50,000 of level cover over 25 years at £15.79 a month for a 35-year-old non-smoker and £22.87 at 40, so £100,000 at 35 costs roughly £32 and £200,000 about £63. The same source puts the average life and critical illness policy at £25.16 a month for £50,000 of cover. Smokers paid 40-80% more on those quotes, a BMI of 30 or above adds 25-100%, and past conditions bring either exclusions or a loading. The price rises about 8% for every year you delay between 40 and 45 and about 12% a year between 45 and 50, and brokers such as LifeSearch, Cavendish Online and Drewberry compare across the market.

The odds of serious illness during working life are higher than the odds of dying during it, which is the central argument for holding this cover alongside a life policy. Cancer carries a 1 in 2 lifetime risk in the UK. Heart attack affects 1 in 8 men and 1 in 14 women, and stroke 1 in 6, with the risk climbing steeply after 50. Dementia reaches 1 in 5, chronic kidney disease 1 in 10 and diabetes 1 in 15. By the age of 65, 30-40% of UK adults have been through a major illness event.

The case for buying is strongest where dependents would suffer if you could not work for 12 months or more, where savings stretch to only 3 months of expenses, where a mortgage would still need paying, or where self-employment leaves you without sick pay. It weakens if you already hold 12 months of expenses in reserve, if income protection covers the same ground, or if nobody relies on your earnings. Buying young and in good health is what keeps the lifetime cost down, since every year of delay is priced in.