Children’s Critical Illness: ensuring some funds when your child gets sick
There’s good news when it comes to Children’s Critical Illness. It’s free! Yes, most critical illness providers tack in Children’s Critical Illness (but to be sure, once you get a quote from your provider, check if this is automatically included).
Children may be diagnosed with a critical illness, too.
This is heartbreaking, especially to a parent.
Child Critical Illness Claims*
- Cancer: 76%
- Brain Tumour: 10%
- Others: 10%
- Stroke: 4%
*Based on Aviva Claims Report for 2009
Having your child diagnosed with a serious illness may rank it up there in a family’s list of tragedies. But what is more heartbreaking is not having the funds to provide for the treatment that the child needs – treatment that can be life-saving or that can improve the quality of their life now and in the future.
This is where Children’s Critical Illness can help. The money you get from the cover can help pay for:
- Treatment
- Lost income if one parent has to leave his/her job to become a carer
- Adaptive equipment
Don't miss:
- Top 5 reasons why a critical illness claim is denied
- Do critical illness insurers really pay out: what the statistics shows
- Top 10 critical illnesses that will pay out
- When are you suspected to get critically ill?
Who are covered?
How the State can Help
State Benefits you can claim to help you cover the costs of your child’s illness
- Disability Living Allowance (which provides allowances for care and mobility). This is available to children with a physical or mental disability that results in a need to be cared for or who have trouble moving or walking.
- Carer’s Allowance, which is given to family members that need to stop working to care for the child
- Income support, which is given to carers who are under retirement age and have low income and savings.
- Child Tax Credit, which can be claimed by parents who are employed and have a dependent child.
- Disabled Facilities Grant, which is funding to help install adaptive equipment in your home. Grants can be as high as £30,000 (England and Wales) or £25,000 (Northern Ireland).
- Help with schooling costs
- Help with transportation costs
You can also think about applying for assistance or grants from various charitable organizations.
For more details, visit: https://www.gov.uk/financial-help-disabled
The cover is for children aged 30 days to 18 years. For some polices, the minimum age limit is 1 year old. This is for:
- Children by natural birth
- Children by legal adoption
- Children by marriage (i.e. stepchildren)
What is covered in Children’s Critical Illness?
The cover will usually include the illnesses included in the “main” cover, except for some critical illnesses. For instance, Legal & General’s Children’s Critical Illness cover provides cover for all of the critical illnesses, except for total and permanent disability.
- For the claim to be payable, the child should be able to survive within 14 days from diagnosis.
- There
are a limited number of claims to be made for the Children’s Critical
Illness cover.
- Only one claim per child is payable.
- Usually, some providers allow up to two claims for Children’s Critical Illness cover.
- Once that maximum number of claims/claims amount is reached, the cover will end.
- The maximum number of claims also applies if the parent has more than one critical illness policies with the provider.
What is not covered in Children’s Critical Illness?
The cover will not pay for:
- Conditions that have been existing since birth or congenital diseases
- Conditions that are hereditary
- Conditions that are pre-existing
Can I take out critical illness insurance for my child?
Yes, you can, as long as he/she meets the minimum age for the critical illness policy.
Last updated on: 18.1.2013
To protect yourself and your family, save up to 35%, please fill the critical illness cover + life insurance form on the right now.
Recommended useful information to read:
- Dos and Don’ts when making critical illness insurance claims
- What you should know about your critical illness cover: the exclusions to your policy
- Things to consider before getting a critical illness insurance policy
- Are you at risk? Critical illnesses you may be susceptible to
- Save up on premiums: factors that affect your critical illness insurance premiums