How much critical illness cover do you really need?

The amount of critical illness cover you require will depend on your personal circumstances and the financial impact you becoming critically ill would have on you and your family.

Using our critical illness calculator (below) will help you to determine how much critical illness cover you require.

How much critical illness cover do you need?

Enter your financial commitments to understand the level of cover you require.

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£121,687 is the estimated average outstanding mortgage per household in the UK.

Our property is generally the largest financial commitment any of us will make.

Your life insurance should cover this significant debt should you no longer be around.
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According to Money Advice Service, full-time childcare in the UK now costs £242 a week.

The loss of a parent could result in the need for additional childcare whilst the surviving parent increases their hours to account for lost income.

Your life insurance cover should factor in this additional required outgoing.
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The average level of debt (minus a mortgage) in the UK is £15,385.

Factoring in any outstanding debts in your name when arranging life insurance ensures this burden is not passed to loved ones.
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You may wish to leave your loved ones an inheritance or lump sum gift upon your passing.

Factoring in the gift amount when arranging your cover will ensure the pay out amount will be sufficient to provide your loved ones with this selfless gesture.
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If you are one of the 65% of the UK who are lucky enough to have savings, this could be used as protection if you were to pass away.

Any pay outs from existing life insurance policies and investments can also be used as financial protection for your loved ones if you were no longer around.

Factor this into your required cover amount.
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Your total cover estimate

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Let us find your best quotes.

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At Reassured, our award-winning and FCA regulated team compare quotes on your behalf to help secure the right solution to meet your unique needs.

Simply get in touch today.

Keep reading to fully understand how much critical illness cover you require…

Is it worth taking out critical illness cover?

Statistics show that you're far more likely to fall critically ill during your working life than pass away.

Critical illness cover can help protect the financial wellbeing of you and your loved ones if you were to fall critically ill and became unable to work.

With such cover in place, a lump sum pay out will be made upon diagnosis of a life-changing illness such as cancer, a stroke or blindness.

These funds could be used to:

  • Replace a lost income
  • Fund necessary adaptations to your home
  • Pay for private medical treatment
  • Get your family finances in order
  • Take your family away on holiday

Therefore, whether or not critical illness is worth the investment will depend on your personal circumstances and the impact being diagnosed with such illness would have on your financial wellbeing.

It's likely anyone bringing income into a household would benefit from having some critical illness cover in place.

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Why would you need critical illness cover?

As mentioned, a critical illness cover claim could be used to cover the cost of private health care, necessary home adaptations or just to enjoy with your family.

Without critical illness cover, being unable to work could result in:

  • Not being able to pay for the mortgage
  • Not being able to meet family living costs
  • You family being required to find the funds for changes to your home and lifestyle


Taking out adequate critical illness cover can ensure all of these needs are met.

How much life insurance and critical illness cover do I need?

Whilst it's possible to arrange critical illness cover without life insurance, more commonly the products are sold as a combined policy.

Therefore, to determine how much life insurance and critical illness cover you require, you should consider not only the financial impact of you no longer being able to work, but also your passing.

Therefore, when arranging a combined life insurance and critical illness policy, you should also factor in expenses such as funeral costs and an inheritance (should you wish to leave one).

Accordingly to SunLife, the average cost of dying has increased by 130% in the past 16 years, leaving the average funeral costing £4,601.

Therefore, a combined life insurance and critical illness policy is likely to require a much higher cover amount (or sum assured).

Arranging combined life insurance and critical illness cover may be cheaper on a monthly basis as it only requires paying one premium, but it will also only result in one pay out.

Therefore, if you're diagnosed with a life-changing illness and make a claim, your life insurance will also expire.

Can I have multiple critical illness policies?

Yes. As with life insurance, it's possible to have multiple critical illness policies in place at once.

Therefore, if diagnosed with a life-changing illness, you can make a claim on all policies in place to increase the overall pay out.

This may be beneficial in a number of scenarios:

  1. If you have a combined life insurance/critical illness policy and standalone policy in place and are diagnosed with a life-changing illness you may not need the full sum assured from both policies. Therefore, you can make a claim on the critical illness policy and leave the other policy in place to protect your life insurance
  2. If you already have one critical illness policy in place but require additional cover due to a change in personal circumstances (e.g. more children, larger mortgage or a significant increase in income) you may wish to take out another critical illness policy to close the cover gap – Although in this instance it is important to compare quotes for brand new cover, as it may be cheaper to start new cover with a larger sum assured
  3. If you have two critical illness policies in place and are diagnosed with a life-changing illness, you may only wish to claim on one policy, leaving the other intact should you be diagnosed with a different critical illness in the future (this is at the discretion of the policyholder)

Compare quotes to secure the best deal

The cost of critical illness cover (with or without life insurance) varies significantly between insurance providers.

Therefore, it's essential to compare quotes in order to secure the best available deal.

At Reassured we can do exactly that on your behalf, providing you with all the information you require to make an informed decision.

Simply get in touch with our award-winning team today for your free quotes.

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