Father and son on the beach.

Critical illness cover

Support from Scottish Widows, for you and your loved ones.

Father and son on the beach.
 
A couple hill walking.

What is critical illness cover?

Critical illness cover can give you peace of mind by paying out a cash lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness, covered by your policy.

The lump sum you receive can go towards whatever you like, meaning you can focus on your health and wellbeing.

To be eligible for critical illness cover you need to be a UK resident, and be 18 years of age or older.

How does critical illness cover work?

What's covered:

  • You and your loved ones will receive a cash lump sum, if you are diagnosed with an illness covered by your policy, before your policy ends.
  • You can cancel at any time, free of charge.
  • You can choose the amount and duration.

Things you need to know:

  • You won’t receive any money back unless a successful claim is made.
  • You can't make changes to your policy after it has started.
  • You must continue to make your monthly payments to keep your policy.

  • Critical illness cover might be right for you if:

    • you’d struggle to keep up with day-to-day costs if you are too ill to work for some time
    • you were too ill to work, and you don’t have any savings or workplace benefits to cover your day-to-day expenses
    • you’d want to focus on your health and wellbeing, using the cash lump sum to relieve the financial pressures.

     

  • The amount of cover that's right for you depends on a few factors. If you are too ill to work, what kind of support would you and your loved ones need?

    Consider the amount of financial help you might need to keep up with:

    • day-to-day costs of living
    • mortgage payments or rent
    • costs to make health-related changes to your home.
       

  • We can offer cover from 5 to 40 years, up to age 69. If you are over the age of 59, you will need to call us to discuss your options.

    Life’s milestones can help you decide how long you want cover for. It might help to think about the number of years until:

    • your children turn 18
    • you have paid your mortgage in full
    • you reach State Pension age.

     

Download our policy guides:
Critical illness cover policy summary (PDF 800 KB) 
Critical illness cover terms and conditions (PDF 871 KB)
 

What critical illnesses does it cover?

Image of the body showing numbered areas where critical illness could occur.

    • Stroke.
    • Brain tumour.
    • Traumatic head Injury.
    • Encephalitis.
    • Bacterial meningitis.
    • Dementia.
    • Multiple sclerosis (MS).
    • Motor neurone disease (MND).
    • Parkinson's disease.
    • Atypical Parkinsonism/Parkinson plus syndrome.
    • Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
    • Devic's disease.

    • Heart attack.
    • Heart surgery:
      • Coronary artery bypass surgery
      • Heart valve replacement or repair.
      • Open heart surgery.
      • Aorta graft surgery.
      • Inserting a defibrillator after cardiac arrest.

    • Kidney failure needing dialysis
    • Transplant:
      • Heart.
      • Kidney.
      • Liver.
      • Lung.
      • Bone marrow.
      • Pancreas.

    • Invasive cancer.
    • For some less severe, early stage cancers, we'll make an early help payment of £5000.00 if you:
      • Undergo surgery for early stage cancer.
      • Receive treatment for early stage prostate cancer.
      • Develop early stage malignant melanoma.

    You can claim for the early help payment more than once for any other unrelated early stage cancer. 

    If you've got more than one Plan and Protect policy, we'll only pay one early help payment across all of your policies.

    Your cover will continue. You can go on to make a full claim for any of the illnesses we cover.

    • Paralysis of an arm or leg.
    • Amputation or severance of hand or foot.

    • Stroke.
    • Brain tumour.
    • Traumatic head Injury.
    • Encephalitis.
    • Bacterial meningitis.
    • Dementia.
    • Multiple sclerosis (MS).
    • Motor neurone disease (MND).
    • Parkinson's disease.
    • Atypical Parkinsonism/Parkinson plus syndrome.
    • Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
    • Devic's disease.

    • Heart attack.
    • Heart surgery:
      • Coronary artery bypass surgery
      • Heart valve replacement or repair.
      • Open heart surgery.
      • Aorta graft surgery.
      • Inserting a defibrillator after cardiac arrest.

    • Kidney failure needing dialysis
    • Transplant:
      • Heart.
      • Kidney.
      • Liver.
      • Lung.
      • Bone marrow.
      • Pancreas.

    • Invasive cancer.
    • For some less severe, early stage cancers, we'll make an early help payment of £5000.00 if you:
      • Undergo surgery for early stage cancer.
      • Receive treatment for early stage prostate cancer.
      • Develop early stage malignant melanoma.

    You can claim for the early help payment more than once for any other unrelated early stage cancer. 

    If you've got more than one Plan and Protect policy, we'll only pay one early help payment across all of your policies.

    Your cover will continue. You can go on to make a full claim for any of the illnesses we cover.

    • Paralysis of an arm or leg.
    • Amputation or severance of hand or foot.

What can critical illness cover be used for?

Healthcare costs

Critical illness cover can provide a cash lump sum, which could create a greater level of choice of medical treatments and rehabilitation.

Cost of living

 The cash lump can help cover daily living expenses if you can’t work, allowing you to focus on your recovery.

Mortgage/rent payments

 You could focus on your health with the peace of mind knowing that the cash lump sum could cover your mortgage or rent payments.

Adapting your home

Adapting your home may become necessary due to certain illnesses, needing you to make it more accessible. The cash lump sum could cover the cost of these changes.

Childcare

While receiving treatment for your illness, you could use the cash lump sum to help with any extra childcare expenses.

Maintaining quality of life

Critical illness cover can provide a cash lump sum to help maintain your quality of life during your illness. Such as holidays, hobbies or any other activities that contribute to your overall wellbeing.

How much does critical illness cover cost?

The cost of critical illness cover can vary depending on several factors such as age, gender, health status, occupation, lifestyle and cover amount. Premiums start from £5 per month*. To get a more accurate idea of how much your cover could cost you’ll need to get a quote online.

If you have a history of smoking, this can also increase your life insurance costs as the risk of death is greater. We take your lifestyle factors such as dangerous jobs and hazardous hobbies into consideration.

If you decide to add life insurance to your critical illness cover policy when you apply, this will be for an extra cost.

*8% of Lloyds Bank customers paid £5 per month for Plan and Protect critical illness cover bought online between 01 June 2023 and 31 May 2024. Price is based on single level critical illness cover excluding life Insurance and is subject to underwriting criteria that depends on personal circumstances. Prices are subject to change.

Get covered today

The following table shows what the price might be, based on your age group. It shows how the monthly cost you pay for life insurance can be lower if you take it out sooner.

Age

18-25

26-50

51-59

Example monthly cost of critical illness cover

£9

£16

£24

Age

Example monthly cost of life insurance

Age

18-25

Example monthly cost of life insurance

£9

Age

26-50

Example monthly cost of life insurance

£16

Age

51-59

Example monthly cost of life insurance

£24

50% of our customers paid these prices or less for single level Plan & Protect critical illness cover bought online between 31 January 2023 and 31 January 2024.

Note, the sample size for18-25 critical illness is 260 and 51-59 critical illness is 215.

Prices are subject to underwriting criteria that depend on personal circumstances and are subject to change.

What type of critical illness cover do I need?

There are different types of critical illness cover available. We offer level critical illness cover online. Here's how it works:

An image of a man with a hat and beard.

How does level cover work?

Level cover means that the cash payout stays the same until your policy ends, so you'll pay the same amount each month.

What's the benefit of level cover?

With level cover, the amount that gets paid out if you make a claim won’t change. This means that you and your loved ones will always know how much cover you'll have in case the unexpected happens.

An image of two female friends.

What is mortgage protection?

With this insurance, you can rest assured that your family can stay in their home, even during challenging times.

It pays out a cash lump sum if you are diagnosed with an illness covered by your policy, before your policy ends. So it could help your loved ones pay off the mortgage if something happens to you.

Find out more about mortgage protection

Get protected by experts

Scottish Widows provide our life insurance policies. They're a part of Lloyds Banking Group, like us. Scottish Widows are experts, and they've been protecting what matters most for over 200 years.

Here are a few reasons why they could be the right choice to protect you and your loved ones:

An image of the Scottish Widows logo.

98% of claims paid out

Scottish Widows paid out 98% of claims in 2023. That’s £243 million in total.

Support when you need it

Scottish Widows works closely with partners like Macmillan Cancer support.

Over 200 years of experience

Scottish Widows has been protecting customers for over 200 years. So, you’re in safe hands.

Scottish Widows life insurance products have no cash-in value at any time. So if the policy ends without a claim, you won't get any money back. If you don't make payments on time, your cover will stop, your policy will end and you'll get nothing back.

 

 

Want to speak to someone?

Our Lloyds Bank protection experts are here to help find the cover that is right for you.

They'll give you advice on Scottish Widows critical illness policies.

They won't charge you for their advice and you do not need to take the product as a result of speaking to them.

Call: 0800 131 0552

Lines are open Monday to Thursday 9am - 7pm, Friday 9am - 6pm.

Or request a call-back at a time that suits you.

Lloyds Bank Insurance Services Limited provides this service, which is also part of Lloyds Banking Group.

Request a call-back

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Did you know?

21% of life insurance claims were for people aged 50 or under.

*Scottish Widows claims statistics 2022.

 

What is life insurance?

Life insurance provides a cash lump sum in the event of your passing before your policy ends. It could serve as a crucial safety net, offering vital financial support to your loved ones during times when you are no longer able to.

When you apply for critical illness cover, you can add life insurance. They're separate policies and cover you for different things, but you can buy them together.

Because they are separate, a successful critical illness claim won’t affect your life insurance policy. This will still pay out if you pass away during the policy term.

Learn more about life insurance

Existing customer support

Do you need help with your existing policy?

If you already have an existing critical illness cover policy and need further support, such as:

  • How to update my details.
  • Changing payment date.

Visit our dedicated page for further support.

Help for existing customers Help for existing customers.

Do you need to make a critical illness cover claim?

Scottish Widows will make every effort to make sure that they handle your claim as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Visit our dedicated page to find:

  • What you’ll need to make a claim.
  • How you can contact us.
  • What you will need to send.
  • Further help and support.
Make a critical illness claim Make a critical illness cover claim.

Your questions answered

  • This kind of cover could pay out a cash lump sum if diagnosed with an illness covered by your policy before it ends. It's designed to help you and your loved ones meet day-to-day costs. This can let you focus on your own health and wellbeing.

    You’ll choose the size of the cash lump sum that will get paid out when you make a successful claim. You’ll also choose how long you want cover for.

    You’ll pay a fixed amount each month by Direct Debit, until your policy ends. Your policy doesn’t have a cash-in value. This means that if it ends without a successful claim, then you won’t get the money back.

  • Scottish Widows is here to support you, even if you have a pre-existing condition. If they are unable to provide you with a policy, they'll let you know how to get more help or advice.

  • If you’d like advice, contact our Lloyds Bank protection experts. They can help find cover that’s right for you and your loved ones.

    They'll give you advice on Scottish Widows critical illness policies.

    They won't charge you for their advice and you do not need to take the product as a result of speaking to them.

    Call:

    0800 131 0552

    Lines are open Monday to Thursday, 9am – 7pm, Friday 9am – 6pm.

    Lloyds Bank Insurance Services Limited provides this service, which is also part of Lloyds Banking Group.

  • How much cover you need, your age, and other factors such as your health history determine the cost of life insurance.

    If you have a history of smoking, this can also increase your life insurance costs as the risk of death is greater. Lifestyle factors such as dangerous jobs and hazardous hobbies are also taken into consideration.

  • No, your policy will only pay out if a successful claim needs to be made. If your policy expires without a claim, your cover will terminate, and you won't receive any money back.