Halifax Critical Illness Plan

What your plan does

Your plan is a critical illness policy with an investment element. It pays a guaranteed lump sum of money if you’re diagnosed with a specified disease or illness.

It provides cover throughout your life or until you choose to cash it in.

How it works

How it works

Your Critical Illness Plan is designed to pay a lump sum of money if you’re diagnosed with one of a number of specified diseases or illnesses. You make regular monthly payments called premiums, and your premiums cover the cost of providing your cover, with any remaining money invested into an investment fund.

If the investment part grows enough, over time it could help with the growing cost of providing your cover, which increases with age. However, investment growth isn’t guaranteed and the value can go down as well as up, which means there is some risk involved. It’s very likely that your monthly payments will need to increase as you get older.

Your payments


Your payments are used for three things:
 

Number 1

Buying small shares (units) of an investment fund. This means that your money is invested in listed companies and other assets, which can rise and fall in value.

Number 2

Paying for your critical illness cover.

Number 3

Charges for managing your plan.

Check your level of cover

When you started your plan you chose a level of cover – maximum, standard or minimum.  Check your paperwork or call us to find out which level you chose.

Maximum cover

Maximum cover

With this type of cover, it’s much more likely your premiums will need to increase as you get older. See Premium Reviews for more detail.

This gives you the highest level of cover for the lowest premium possible.

Most payments go towards paying for critical illness cover, with very little invested. This means growth in the value of your policy is much less likely, and it’s more likely your premiums will need to increase over time.

Standard cover

Standard cover

There’s a risk your premiums will need to increase as you get older. See Premium Reviews for more detail.

Standard cover aims to keep premiums the same if investments grow enough. If your plan’s investments don’t grow enough, the critical illness insurance costs will increase over time.

Premium reviews

After an initial period – often after the first 10 years - we review the amount you’re paying to check it’s enough to keep up your level of cover for the next 5 years. After this, the reviews are usually every 5 years.

Our review looks at the cost of providing your critical illness cover as you get older and how the investments in your plan have performed. We’ll write to you to explain this and give you options.

Your premiums are likely to increase

Your premiums are likely to increase

For some plans, particularly if you opened it with Maximum or Standard level of cover, your premiums will normally need to increase as you get older (if you want to keep the same amount of cover in place).  The increases could become significant as you get older, particularly from age 60.

If you’d prefer not to increase your payments, you can reduce your cover instead. We’ll explain this option in a letter we send after each review.

If you don't need the plan anymore, you can cancel it and we’ll give you the value of your investment units.

Other cover options

You may also have chosen additional options to provide more comprehensive cover.

Please check your original paperwork if you’re not sure whether you have these or call us and we can let you know.

Death Benefit

Death Benefit

You may have chosen to add Death Benefit to your policy for an extra cost.

If you die without a critical illness claim, a minimum death benefit is paid. However, this benefit is likely to be much lower than the sum assured.

Waiver of Premium

Waiver of Premium

You may have added a waiver of premium benefit to your policy for an additional cost.

If you did, this means you don’t have to pay your normal monthly premiums during a period of disability which has left you unable to work. If your claim is accepted, we’ll pay your monthly premiums for you after a defined waiting period.

This benefit enables you to keep your plan up-to-date with monthly premiums until you’re able to return to work and start paying the premiums yourself.

Key features and risks

  • The most important thing to understand is the risk that your monthly payments may need to go up as you get older, potentially significantly, depending on the cover basis you chose and how the investment element of your plan performs over time.
  • In particular, for plans opened with either Maximum or Standard level of cover, our premium reviews will normally result in an increase to your payments each time (if you want to keep the same amount of life cover in place). These increases could become significant as you get older, particularly from age 60. If you don’t want your payments to increase, you can reduce your level of cover instead.  Or you can cancel your plan if you don't need it anymore, and we’ll give you the value of your investment units.
  • We carry out reviews to check whether your payments remain enough to sustain your level of life cover, initially after 10 years then usually every 5 years. We’ll always write to let you know this and give you options.

Reviewing your plan

You may have taken your plan out some time ago, so it’s important to check it’s still right for you.

  • Have your needs or circumstances changed? Do you still need your critical illness cover?
  • Is your level of cover still suitable for you or do you need to increase or decrease your cover?
  • Did you know that, depending on the value of the investments held in your plan, you have the option of stopping your payments and continuing to benefit from the same level of cover until the value has been used up? Once the value has been used up the plan will end without any payment or value.

How to claim

How to claim

How to claim

If you need to contact us to make a claim, our specialist team are on hand to provide support and deal with your claim as smoothly as possible. You’ll find more information on How to claim.

We’ll need to complete some checks before we can confirm if you’re entitled to payments.

Contact us

Contact us

You’ll find details about your plan on your annual statement or original plan documents.

If you have any questions, or need help, please get in touch.

Contact us