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Critical illness cover UK, what it pays and covers
Critical illness cover pays a tax-free, one-off sum if you are diagnosed with a condition your policy includes (MoneyHelper ↗).
Under the ABI's minimum standards, a policy sold under that name must cover cancer, heart attack and stroke (ABI ↗).
This guide covers what it pays, what it includes, how claims go and who may need it.
Every claim here is our summary of a named external source, linked beside it. Sources change: check the wording at the link before you rely on it.
Source, to check at the link: (ABI ↗)
What is critical illness cover? A lump sum on diagnosis
MoneyHelper says critical illness cover supports you financially if you are diagnosed with one of the conditions in the policy.
The payment is tax-free and one-off, and can go towards treatment, a mortgage, rent or changes to your home (MoneyHelper ↗).
It pays out once, after which the policy ends (MoneyHelper ↗).
Life insurance, by contrast, pays if you pass away within the agreed term (MoneyHelper ↗).
Buy
You choose the cover and the term
Answer every question the insurer asks: it checks your medical history when you claim.
Diagnosis
You are diagnosed with a listed condition
It must meet the policy’s definition, not just share the name.
Payout
A tax-free, one-off payment
Then the policy ends, unless the claim was one the insurer pays on top.
Standalone or combined with life cover
MoneyHelper says critical illness cover is often combined with a life insurance policy (MoneyHelper ↗).
LV= says its cover is mostly sold as a combination of life insurance and critical illness (LV= ↗), and Legal & General adds its critical illness cover, for an extra cost, when you take out life or decreasing life insurance (Legal & General ↗).
Some insurers sell it on its own.
Vitality says you can take out its serious illness plan without life insurance (Vitality ↗).
Read how each policy pays: Legal & General pays the cover in full and the policy then ends (Legal & General ↗), while Aviva pays once unless the claim is a children's or an additional critical illness claim (Aviva ↗).
What each insurer says about its own product, not a recommendation. Terms differ by insurer and change; check each at its link.
What does critical illness cover include? The core three first
The ABI's Guide to Minimum Standards says a policy called critical illness cover must include cancer, heart attack and stroke to specified minimum definitions (ABI ↗).
The ABI says these three are the most common critical illnesses, accounting for 80% of claims (ABI ↗).
The Guide also defines further conditions.
Insurers need not include any of them, but where they do, they must use the ABI's definition (ABI ↗).
So the list differs by policy.
MoneyHelper names common exclusions: non-invasive cancers, high blood pressure and injuries such as broken bones.
It says definitions and exclusions can vary between insurers (MoneyHelper ↗).
Must be covered, to the ABI's minimum definitions
ABI Guide; check at the link: (ABI ↗)
Further conditions with ABI definitions, if the policy includes them
- Aorta graft surgery
- Benign brain tumour
- Blindness
- Coma
- Coronary artery by-pass grafts
- Deafness
- Dementia including Alzheimer’s disease
- Heart valve replacement or repair
- Kidney failure
- Loss of speech
- Loss of hand or foot
- Major organ transplant
- Motor neurone disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Paralysis of limb
- Parkinson’s disease
- Third degree burns
- Total permanent disability
- Traumatic brain injury
Headings from Chapter 4 of the ABI Guide. Insurers need not include any of them; where they do, they must use the ABI definition: (ABI ↗)
Critical illness claims, by the numbers
The ABI says individual critical illness claims paid came to £1.25 billion in 2025, with an average payout of £67,000, and that almost two-thirds (65%) of claims were for cancer (ABI ↗).
Across individual and group claims, 90.2% of new critical illness claims were paid (ABI ↗).
For 2024, the ABI named not disclosing existing medical conditions, and not meeting the policy definitions, as common reasons for declined claims (ABI ↗).
MoneyHelper says the insurer will check your medical history when you claim (MoneyHelper ↗).
How much does critical illness cover cost? It depends on you
MoneyHelper lists what moves the price, and the card sets it out (MoneyHelper ↗).
Whether the premium is guaranteed or reviewable matters too.
What affects the price
- Age
- Smoking, now or in the past
- Health
- Weight
- Family medical history
- Your job
- The level of cover
- The term
- Any add-ons
- Single or joint
The first seven from MoneyHelper's critical illness guide (MoneyHelper ↗); the term, add-ons and single or joint from its protection insurance guide (MoneyHelper ↗).
Do you need critical illness cover? MoneyHelper's checklist
The statements are MoneyHelper's own lists of when to consider the cover and when you might not need it (MoneyHelper ↗); the needle is not advice, and nothing you tick is stored or sent.
Critical illness cover is not the same as income protection, which pays regular amounts if you cannot work through illness or an accident (MoneyHelper ↗).
Tick what applies
The needle moves with each answer.
Critical illness cover for a business
A company can protect its profits when someone it relies on is seriously ill.
HMRC describes key person cover as a policy an employer takes out in its own favour against loss of profits from the death, critical illness, sickness, accident or injury of a key person (HMRC ↗).
Legal & General's version is owned and paid for by the employer, so any payout goes to the employer (Legal & General ↗).
- Before you compare
Compare critical illness cover
Definitions, payment rules and what insurers publish about their own policies.
Read the guide → - The price
Critical illness cover cost
What moves the premium, and the one published example we could verify.
Read the guide → - Your home
Critical illness cover for a mortgage
Level or decreasing cover, and what to check before you rely on it.
Read the guide → - Pays the business
Key person critical illness
When the company insures someone it depends on, and is paid on their diagnosis.
Read the guide → - Pays the business, monthly
Executive income protection
A monthly benefit to the company while an employee cannot work.
Read the guide →
Check it for yourself
Every claim on this page is our summary of one of the documents listed here.
We last checked them against the live sources on 28 September 2026.
The documents are the authority, not this page.
Insurers and HMRC update them, so validate any figure or condition at its link before you rely on it.
- MoneyHelper: what is critical illness cover? ↗What it pays, exclusions, premiums and who may need it
- ABI Guide to Minimum Standards for Critical Illness Cover ↗The three core conditions, the further conditions and their definitions
- ABI: protection insurers pay out £7.84 billion in 2025 ↗Critical illness claims paid, average payout and the cancer share
- ABI: record £8bn paid in protection claims, 2024 ↗Common reasons for declined claims
- MoneyHelper: what is life insurance? ↗Level and decreasing term cover, and mortgages
- MoneyHelper: what is income protection insurance? ↗Regular payments while you cannot work
- MoneyHelper: what kind of protection insurance you need ↗What premiums depend on
- Legal & General critical illness cover ↗Added to life or decreasing life insurance; pays once, then ends
- Aviva critical illness cover ↗Level and decreasing cover; children’s and additional claims
- LV= life and critical illness cover ↗Mostly sold with life cover; additional payment conditions
- Vitality Serious Illness Cover ↗Pays a share of the cover by severity; can be taken without life cover
- HMRC Business Income Manual, BIM45525 ↗Key person cover, including critical illness, and tax
Critical illness cover, answered
Not financial advice. This page is general information. Before buying insurance, the FCA tells consumers to check the firm on its Firm Checker (FCA ↗). For free guidance, see MoneyHelper.