Life and critical illness cover
Get extra protection and peace of mind with critical illness cover
Life-changing cover for life-changing events
Almost everyone knows someone who has been affected by a life-changing condition such as cancer, a stroke, heart disease or a serious accident. If this were to happen to you, critical illness cover is designed to pay a one-off payment to help you protect your home, family and lifestyle. This type of cover is mostly sold as a combination of life insurance and critical illness.
- Multiple critical illnesses covered.
- 90% of all critical illness claims paid in 2024.
- Claims settled in as little as 3 days from our final decision.
- Lump sum on diagnosis of certain critical illnesses.
- Protect your family, home and lifestyle.
- Add children’s critical illness cover to your policy.
- Get a quote for your life insurance policy with critical illness cover.
Written by real people
All of our life and critical illness cover content is approved by our in-house expert advisory panel.
This content is endorsed by Phil Briars. Phil has over 20 years' experience in financial services and leads the development of LV= protection products to meet customers' evolving needs. He's passionate about making protection accessible for everyone.
Claim up to £250 gift cards
Get up to £250 worth of e-Gift cards when you take out life with critical illness cover
We’re offering up to £250* worth of e-Gift cards when you take out a policy on LV.com and then pay at least six-monthly premiums.
*Amount varies depending on the premium you pay. See T&C's for full details.
WHAT IS LIFE AND CRITICAL ILLNESS COVER?
Critical Illness cover for you and your family
It's easy to think that being diagnosed with a critical illness isn't going to happen to you, but should the worst happen, you can help make sure your family and loved ones are protected by easing their financial worries.
Critical illness cover is a lump-sum payment given to you or your beneficiaries if you are diagnosed with a certain life-changing illness or injury, and life cover is designed to pay out if you pass away during the policy term.
Being diagnosed with a terminal or life-changing illness is an uncertain and emotional time for you and your loved ones. Having life insurance with critical illness cover gives you financial security, peace of mind and helps to ease the burden.
How does life and critical illness cover work?
Life insurance with critical illness will pay out if you die or are diagnosed with a critical illness during the term of the policy. You pay for your cover monthly, like a normal insurance policy, and then if the worst happens, you or your beneficiaries receive a lump sum.
Do I need critical illness cover?
Critical illness cover can help minimise the financial impact on you and your family if you become critically ill or injured (see the critical illnesses covered). Adding it as an option when you take out life insurance can give you the extra protection and peace of mind you may need.
Life and Critical illness cover eligibility
Who can apply for a life insurance with critical illness policy?
To apply for life and critical illness cover, you must be:
- A UK resident
- Aged 17 to 64
- Policy must last for a minimum of 5 years and can only last for a maximum of 50 years
- Cover must end before any person insured reaches the age of 80
What does our critical illness cover include?
Let's take a closer look at what LV= critical illness cover will include, when added to a life insurance policy.
- Enhanced claim payments for 9 conditions. These are full payment conditions where we’ll pay an additional 50% on top of your amount of cover – up to a maximum of £200,000 (on top of your cover). This happens if your claim is as a direct result of an accident.
- Option to add children's critical illness cover, which will cover up to £35,000. This is an additional cost and can be added straight away or at a later date. Without this, your children will not be covered under your policy.
- We'll pay a lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of the listed critical illnesses covered.
- We'll pay up to £30,000 for two less severe conditions and if a payment is made for an additional payment condition, your policy will continue.
What doesn’t our critical illness cover include?
When you take out a critical illness policy with life insurance, the following conditions apply:
- You’re not covered if you take your own life within the first year of the policy.
- Death after 14 days of diagnosis, aside from children’s cover.
- People over the age of 80.
- Terms less than five years and greater than 50 years.
- Cover if you’re diagnosed outside of an agreed list of countries.
Level or Decreasing cover?
Level and Decreasing cover explained
Critical illness - level cover
Reasons for choosing ‘level cover’
- Your critical illness cover amount and premiums are fixed for the length of the policy.
- This type of cover will pay out a lump sum should you get diagnosed with a specified critical illness or injury during the term of the policy.
- You can choose the cover amount and duration (5-50 years, ending before age 80).
Reasons for not choosing ‘level cover’
- Level cover can be pricier than decreasing cover.
- It will be worth less in the future as it doesn’t keep up with inflation.
Critical illness - decreasing cover
Reasons for choosing ‘decreasing cover’
- With decreasing cover, the total amount of money you are covered for reduces every year.
- It’s designed to cover reducing amounts owed on capital and repayment mortgages.
- Your premium remains consistent throughout the policy.
- Decreasing cover is usually cheaper than level cover.
- You can choose the cover amount and duration (5-50 years, ending before age 80).
Reasons for not choosing ‘decreasing cover’
- It may not work well if you plan to make extra payments on your mortgage during the policy term.
- It will not be suitable if you are using it to cover an interest-only mortgage.
- The payout may be higher or lower than your outstanding mortgage or loan balance when you pass away or based on interest rates.
Life and Critical illness cover benefits
What are the benefits of life and critical illness cover?
- Peace of mind: With critical illness cover as part of your life insurance policy, it’s not just you that benefits. You can rest assured your loved ones will be cared for as well.
- Preparing for anything: None of us know what’s going to happen in 5, 10, or 20 years, but knowing that you’ve made plans means you’re prepared, whatever happens next.
Support, when you need it most
We paid out over £33 million in critical illness claims in 2024, helping hundreds of people and families through a difficult time.
Get protection for your children
Our children’s critical illness cover can be added to your life insurance policy for an additional cost.
Making the decision on Life and Critical illness cover
Is critical illness cover worth it?
Deciding whether you need critical illness cover with life insurance depends on your situation.
We may not expect to face serious illness, especially when we’re young. However, it’s important to consider how you’d cope financially if you couldn’t work and the impact this would have on your loved ones.
Life insurance with critical illness cover provides a lump sum payout if you die, or are diagnosed with one of a number of serious life-changing illnesses or conditions helping to cover expenses such as debts or home adjustments.
When life takes an unexpected turn, critical illness cover can help provide financial security for you and your loved ones. Alternatively, you may have other means of supporting your family if you were to become seriously ill and are unable to work.
If you’re unsure whether life and critical illness cover is right for you, it’s important to seek professional financial advice.
Explore life and critical illness insurance guides
Learn more about life and critical illness cover
Choosing LV= for life and critical illness cover
Why choose LV= for critical illness cover?
Once we've made our final decision, we aim to pay a claim within 3 days.
Important information about our life and critical illness policies
Here's the need-to-know info, so you have the full picture
- Available to UK residents aged 17 to 64.
- Your policy must last for at least 5 years (our minimum term), and can't last for longer than 50 years (our maximum term). The policy must end before any person insured reaches the age of 80.
- We only pay for the critical illnesses covered in our policy and no others.
- Adult critical illness claims will only be paid if you survive for at least 14 days after being diagnosed (this doesn’t apply to claims for children’s cover).
- We won’t pay a claim if you die as a result of intentionally taking your own life within the first 12 months of your policy.
- If you stop paying your premiums you won't get any money back and your cover may stop.
- Children's critical illness cover is an additional cost and can be added on to the policy immediately or at a later date (as long as there is at least 5 years remaining on the policy). Your children will be covered for the critical illnesses covered in our policy and no others.
- If children's cover is added and then later removed, it cannot be added back on to the same policy.
- This is a term policy, so you will only be covered for the length of cover you have chosen.
- Once the policy ends, the critical illness cover stops and you won't get any money back.
Please read the policy summary and policy conditions to help you understand the full features of this product.
The information given in these pages should not be seen as advice to take out this plan so if you're happy that the product meets your needs you can apply online, or over the phone through LifeSearch.
As part of your life with critical illness application we may need to contact your doctor for a medical report. You don’t have to give your consent to us obtaining a medical report if we need to, but you won’t be able to complete the online application without agreeing to this. It’s still your responsibility to answer all the questions accurately and honestly in your application. If you don’t, we might not pay a claim and could cancel your policy.
Please note additional features could be available on this type of product, including total permanent disability, inflation-linked cover and applying on a life of another basis. We also have a different life and critical illness product which provides cover for more conditions and features. Should you wish to discuss the additional features or our other policy, you can contact LifeSearch on 0800 197 2266. LV= have chosen to partner with LifeSearch to offer customers independent advice for protection products.
Financial Advice
Need advice?
We've chosen to partner with LifeSearch to offer you independent advice on which protection products are right for you.
Lines open: 8am - 8pm Monday to Thursday and 8am - 6pm Fridays
For Text Phone first dial 18001
Calls may be recorded and/or monitored for training and audit purposes.
Frequently Asked Questions
You must have 100 questions about life insurance and critical illness cover, but let’s start with the following:
How much cover might I need?
When considering the cover you want to get, you should think about:
- Your monthly outgoings
- Any unpaid debts, such as a mortgage
- Any financial dependents, such as children
What critical illnesses do LV= cover?
For new customers, LV= cover two types of conditions:
- Full payment conditions - including cancer, Parkinson's Disease, heart-related conditions, and strokes where we would pay the full amount you're covered for.
- Additional payment conditions - where we cover less severe conditions which will pay out an amount equal to lower of 25% of your amount of cover or £30,000. This is paid in addition to your amount of cover, and your policy will still continue for the full amount.
You can find our full list of critical illnesses we cover here.
How to make a critical illness cover claim
When diagnosed with a critical illness, it can be a tough time. That’s why our claims process is simple. We can talk you through the steps.
Call our Claims Department on 0800 756 5869 or for TextDirect call 18001 0800 756 5869.
For more ways to make a claim, see our page on life with critical illness claims.
- Check what you’re covered for. We cover a wide range of conditions.
- Contact us as soon as possible. We don’t mind how, you can call us, use our TextDirect service, write in or email us.
- We’ll discuss your claim with you and send a claims pack, either digitally or in the post
- If you want, we can take you through some of the questions over the phone, but we do need to send you the claims forms, as they need to be checked and signed by you.
We need the following documentation:
- Claim form, completed by you or a next of kin if you are unable to do so
- Consent forms signed by you so we can get medical reports where needed
Any medical reports copies from your doctors that you may have been given
Can I get critical illness cover without life insurance?
At LV=, you can’t get critical illness cover without life insurance, you’ll need one of our life insurance policies. However, you can choose as much or as little critical illness cover as you want.
What affects the cost of critical illness cover?
The cost of your critical illness cover depends on several key factors:
- Your age & health: Your age when taking out the policy, medical history, current health conditions, and lifestyle factors such as smoking and your activity levels, all play a role.
- Cover amount & term: Higher cover amounts and longer policy terms increase your premiums.
- Lifestyle factors: Factors like smoking, alcohol consumption, and high-risk hobbies can increase your premiums.
- Occupation: Some jobs carry higher health risks and may affect your premium.
- Family medical history: A history of certain conditions in your immediate family could impact your premium calculation.
When does critical illness cover pay out?
Life and critical illness cover provides a payout if you’re diagnosed with one of the specific illnesses or injuries covered by your insurance policy. In most cases, this is a one-off payment, and the policy ends once the claim has been paid. Once a final decision has been made, we aim to settle claims within three days.
How much does critical illness cover pay out?
The amount you receive depends on the level of life and critical illness cover you choose. Payouts can range from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand pounds, depending on what you’re looking to protect, such as your mortgage, outstanding debts, living expenses or income.
According to the Association of British Insurers, the total value of critical illness claims increased to £1.3 billion in 2024, reflecting a 5% rise compared to 2023. This brought the average critical illness claim paid to £67,600.
policy documents
A little extra info never hurt anyone, so have a read of our policy documents
You can get this and other documents from us in Braille, large print or audio by contacting us.
Buying life insurance with critical illness is quick and easy
Check out our Life Insurance and Critical Illness guides
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