Critical illness insurance - Additional cover for children

Traditionally there has been little thought given to easing the financial

suffering of those families whos children suffer from disease.

However over the last few years insurers have realsied the

importance of family insurance with many now offering automatic life

and critical insurance for children.

Insurance provider Zurich provided has been at the fore front of promoting critical illness cover for children and now offers free critical illness cover for children up until the age of 17 at no

extra charge to the policy holder. The provider have also claimed that since 2008 they have paid out £975,000 to 60 families whose children were

affected by a critical illness.

Similarly insurance giant Aviva are now offering new parents free life cover of up to £10,000 for

their new born until they reach their first birthday. This is in response to Avivas shocking research that over 40% of new parents do not have any life cover in place. Additionally those

who do have cover in place almost 20% of those only have enough to cover their mortgage.

Even with dramatic advances in medical technology the number of children being diagnosed with cancer has

changed very little in the last 40 years and still has a huge impact of the surrounding family. The amount families can

claim is normally a precentage of the the policy holders cover, up to a certain limit; this limit can differ between providers. The cover normally applies to those between the ages of 30 days and 18 years and all claims are assed

on a simpler version of the adult criteria. In addition to this making a claim on your policy for a child’s critical illness

should not affect your cover or cause the policy to

terminate.

Insurance companies providing this cover could help to cover:

• Medical costs

• Nursing care

• Allowing parents time off work

The crucial point here is that having critical illness cover for your child will allow you, financially, to take time of work. Critical illness cover

within an adult policy can be a huge advantage for families, with the

additional benefit that with most UK policies it comes at no extra cost.

Critical illness insurance - Additional cover for children