Parents unaware of critical illness benefits

Parents are risking the financial security of their families should they become seriously ill by not thinking about critical illness (CI) protection.

Of the small percentage of those who have purchased insurance, a significant number did not know if it included cover for their children.

It is a sad fact , but children's illness are the fourth highest claim reason on critical illness policies – ranking only behind cancer, heart attack and stroke.

According to a recent study, only one in twenty (6%) parents has a CI policy in place and one third (31%) of those did not know its coverage of children's diseases.

It estimated that almost 300,000 parents needed to check their policy to see if it extends to covering their children.

And of the one million parents who have a CI policy in place, 35% of those are just themselves covered by their CI policy.

Surprisingly, only one third of parents with cover (33%) have a comprehensive CI policy includes children as standard, in the event they become critically ill or seriously disabled.

It was also found that parents in the West Midlands were most aware about whether their CI policy covered their children (56%), while just 10% of those in the East Midlands were certain.

If you have children and are in any way concerned about whether your existing policy would cover them if needed, please do feel free to get in touch.

As always , thanks for your attention.

Mark ( mark@themortgagemonkey.co.uk)