Aviva Critical Illness Insurance [REVIEW]

Who Are Aviva?

Aviva’s origins trace back to 1696, giving them more than 320 years’ experience in helping people prepare for the unexpected. They adopted the Aviva brand in 2000 after Norwich Union merged with the insurer CGU.

Today, Aviva is one of the UK’s largest insurance companies, providing financial service to more than 15 million customers.

Its Critical Illness product has a 5 star Defaqto rating, which you can tailor to meet your specific needs.

Aviva Critical Illness+ Insurance Policy Overview

• Standalone Policy
  While you can only take out Critical Illness+ alongside Life Insurance, they are two separate policies, so both could pay out
• Only Available Through an Intermediary
  Aviva offers a basic policy, called simply Critical Illness. But we always recommend Critical Illness+ for our clients, as it offers greater protection. It’s only available when you apply through a financial adviser
• Children’s Cover
  When you take out Critical Illness+ cover for yourself, any children you have are automatically included
• Upgrade Option
  At an extra cost, you can opt for upgraded cover for extra protection, with more conditions insured
• Aviva DigiCare+
  Wellbeing support through the Aviva Digicare+ app, helping you prevent, detect and manage a range of health issues. The service includes check-ups, nutritional advice, mental health support, and more.

What Does Aviva Critical Illness+ Insurance Cover?

As we mentioned before, Aviva has two different Critical Illness policies:

• Aviva Critical Illness
  Aviva’s core Critical Illness product offers a very basic level of protection. We tend not to recommend it, as there are a lot of gaps in the cover
• Aviva Critical Illness+
  This is a far more comprehensive policy which offers the level of comprehensive protection most of our clients need.

Critical Illness+ is only available through advisers, because it’s a more involved product. And both we—and Aviva—are committed to making sure you fully understand what you’re purchasing.

We’ve summarised the key coverage of Aviva’s Critical Illness+ policy in the table below.

Aviva Critical Illness+ Insurance Key Policy Factors

Critical Illness Cover from Aviva comes with some key points that you need to consider when choosing a provider.

Standalone Policy

There are two different definitions of what a ‘standalone’ policy might mean. Sometimes, it refers to a single Critical Illness policy with no Life Insurance attached.

Aviva’s critical cover is only available when you take out Life Insurance as well, but it’s a separate policy. So, unlike other combined Life & Critical policies, you keep your life benefit after a critical illness claim.

Free Children’s Cover

Aviva includes Child Critical Illness for free when you take out your own Critical Illness policy. It pays out a claim if your child suffers a critical condition between 30 days old and their 18th birthday (21st if in full-time education).

If they have to stay in hospital, the policy will also pay out £100 per night (up to £3,000) after the seventh consecutive night. You also receive £5,000 if a child passes away.

Upgrade For Full Cover

While Aviva’s Critical Illness+ core policy provides a good amount of cover, upgrading your policy gives you far more comprehensive coverage. For example, upgraded cover includes:

• Protection for 15 more illnesses, for a total of 48 full critical conditions
• 24 further illnesses covered, protecting you for 26 additional payment conditions in total
• A hospital benefit of £100 per night, up to a total of £3,000
• Upgraded Children’s cover included for free.

These are only a few examples. But generally speaking, the conditions covered by a comprehensive policy are more common. So upgrading your cover increases the chance that the policy will pay out when you need it to.

You can also add a number of other paid services to your policy for an extra cost. For instance, Waiver of Premium and Total Permanent Disability. If you take these out as well, it makes your policy even more comprehensive.

Increasing Cover Available

Aviva gives you the option to take out your cover on an increasing basis. This helps to maintain the value of a potential claim if inflation goes up. If you’d like an increasing benefit, there are two options to choose from:

• Index-Linked Benefit
  Your cover increases every year at the rate of the Retail Prices Index (RPI), up to a maximum of 10% each year. To afford your higher benefit, your premiums also go up. They’ll increase by the rate of inflation times 1.5.
• Fixed Increasing Cover
  With this option, your cover goes up by either 3% or 5% each year. You’ll decide this at the start of the policy. Again, your premiums will also go up, by either 4.5% or 7.5% each year respectively.

Aviva contacts you each year before your increase is due to take effect. If you don’t want to accept the increase, you don’t have to—just let Aviva know.

But if you opt out for 3 years in a row, Aviva will remove the increasing cover. Your policy and premium will be ‘level’ from then on, with no option to switch back to increasing cover later.

Rauri Taylor
Independent Protection Expert

Life Change Benefit

Like most providers, Aviva offers a Guaranteed Insurability option, known as a Life Change Benefit. It allows you to increase your benefit without further medical evidence after certain life events occur. The life events that qualify are:

• Marriage or civil partnership
• Divorce, separation, or dissolution of civil partnership
• Becoming a parent
• An increase in your mortgage due to moving, buying a new home, or making home improvements
• Receiving a pay rise of at least 20% as a result of a promotion or changing jobs
• An increase in your rent due to your landlord putting it up, or moving into a new rental property
• Increased housing costs as a result of moving from paying rent to paying a mortgage.

You can increase your benefit by the lower of:

• £200,000 (for level and decreasing cover)
• £8,000 per year for Family Income Benefit paid monthly
• The original cover amount you had at the start of the policy
• The amount your mortgage has increased by
• Your rent increase or your increase in housing payments when shifting from rent to a mortgage, multiplied by the number of months left on your Life Insurance (up to a maximum increase of £200,000).

Separation Benefit

If you have a joint policy and get divorced, separated, or dissolve your civil partnership, you can split your plan into two separate policies. Neither person will have to go through any further medical checks, as long as:

• The oldest person the policy covers is no more than 55 years old
• Your policy was accepted on standard terms
• You provide any evidence of your separation that Aviva needs, and apply within 90 days of the separation occurring
• Aviva hasn’t paid out a full claim (this excludes their hospitalisation benefit, children’s cover or upgraded children’s cover)
• The policy isn’t in a trust
• Each new policy meets Aviva’s minimum premium amount
• The two new policies both end before each party’s 70th birthday.

Renewal Option

If your policy is accepted on standard terms and you don’t have increasing cover, you can add Aviva’s Renewal Option. It allows you to renew your cover on your policy end date with no more health or lifestyle questions.

You can’t increase any part of your policy when you use this option. If you have a joint policy, both people have to agree. And, if you’ve already claimed for a condition, that condition won’t be covered by the renewed policy.

Multiple Free Benefits, Plus Add More for an Extra Premium

Aviva offers a wide selection of free extra benefits as standard with their policy. Most of these come under their DigiCare+ app, which we cover in the next section.

Additional Benefits

All Aviva customers will have access to some extra services and benefits for free. You can also add more additional features for an extra cost, if you like.

Aviva DigiCare+

Most of Aviva’s benefits are offered under Aviva DigiCare+. It offers a selection of support services, including:

Bupa Anytime HealthLine

Aviva partners with Bupa to offer an 24/7 unlimited helpline staffed by Bupa nurses. They can answer your medical questions on many topics, such as medication, health concerns, travel advice, and mental health.

Even if you’re the only person insured by a policy, your loved ones can still benefit from using the Bupa HealthLine. Your partner and any eligible children can also use the service until their 18th birthday (or 21 if in full-time education).

Mental Health Support

You can benefit from up to six telephone or video appointments with a qualified psychotherapist. Like the Bupa HealthLine, you, your partner, or your children can use these appointments.

Second Medical Opinion

If you receive a serious diagnosis, you can receive a face-to-face second medical opinion from a specialist based in the UK. They can review your diagnosis and treatment plan and may suggest improvements or alternatives.

You can use up to two appointments per year. Again, they’re available to your partner and children, too.

Annual Health Check

You can also have an annual health check-up for free via a finger prick blood test. Aviva will send you a kit through the post, which you can then use in the comfort and privacy of your own home.

After returning the kit for analysis, Aviva tests your sample for 20 markers of potential disease. They’ll then inform you of any health problems, meaning you can get ahead of any health concerns.

Nutrition Consultation

Up to six consultations with a qualified nutritionist each year. The consultations include an assessment of your current nutritional and lifestyle choices. Aviva’s nutritionists will guide you towards optimal eating plans and how to change your relationship with food.

These consultations can be shared between you, your partner and your children aged between 12 and 18 (or up to age 21 if in full-time education).

Gym Discounts

As an Aviva customer, you’re eligible for up to 25% off gym memberships at a range of well-known fitness centres in the UK, plus a number of independent gyms.

Bereavement Counselling

You can use up to six telephone or video sessions with a qualified bereavement counsellor. The sessions need to be used within 12 months of the death of a close family member.

Once again, these sessions can be shared between you, your partner or any children aged between 16 and 18 (up to age 21 if in full-time education).

Optional Extras

Digital GP Consultation (Additional Cost)

For an extra premium, you can choose to add on Aviva’s Digital GP service. It provides up to three digital GP appointments each year via phone or video link, within 24 hours of booking an appointment.

You, your partner, and any eligible children up to age 18 (or 21 if in full-time education) can use the appointments.

Fracture Cover (Additional Cost)

Also for an extra cost, you can add Fracture Cover onto your policy. With this, Aviva pays up to £6,000 for one of 18 specified fractures. or 7 ligament and tendon injuries.

You can claim on the Fracture Cover once per year. If you suffer multiple fractures at the same time, you can choose to claim for the one that offers the highest payout. Aviva excludes fractures sustained during:

• Mountain biking / BMX
• Boxing
• Cage fighting
• Martial arts
• Rugby / Gaelic football
• Horse-riding
• Motorcycle sports.

Another important point is that you need to have held the policy for 7 days before being able to claim under Fracture Cover.

Global Treatment (Additional Cost)

You can add Aviva’s Global Treatment optional for an extra premium.

It covers you or your children if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness or require a medical procedure named in your terms. If this happens, Aviva will use a concierge service that recommends world-renowned doctors and treatment centres.

The Global Treatment option covers you for up to £1 million per year for overseas medical treatment. This includes travel, accommodation and medical costs. Over the term of the policy, this option will pay out a maximum of £2 million.

Waiver of Premium (Additional Cost)

If you add Waiver of Premium cover when you take out your policy, you’ll choose a deferred period of 1, 3, or 6 months. If you’re unable to work, Aviva will waive your policy premiums after this deferred period has passed.

Aviva will waive your premiums until you either return to work, the policy expires, you turn 71, or you pass away.

Total Permanent Disability (Additional Cost)

For an extra cost, Aviva will pay out a full claim if you’re permanently unable to:

• Do your own job, or
• Perform at least three of the work-related tasks listed in your policy documents.

Once a Total Permanent Disability is claimed, your policy will end—unless you’ve also added the Extra Care Cover option below.

Extra Care Cover (Additional Cost)

Another optional you can include for an extra charge is Aviva’s Extra Care Cover. It means that Aviva pays an additional £50,000 on top of your Critical Illness claim for certain severe and permanent conditions. For instance:

• Dementia
• Kidney / liver failure
• Parkinson’s disease
• Motor neurone disease
• Respiratory failure.

Aviva will also pay out the additional £50,000 of Extra Care Cover if you’re unable to do at least three work-related tasks. These are known as activities of ‘daily living’ and include:

• Washing yourself
• Dressing yourself
• Feeding yourself pre-prepared food unaided
• Controlling bowel or bladder functions without protective undergarments or surgical appliances
• Moving from one room to another on a level surface
• Being able to get on and off the toilet, in and out of bed to a chair or wheelchair, and back again.

How Does Aviva Critical Illness+ Insurance Compare?

We’ve compared some features of Aviva’s Critical Illness product below to help you see how they measure up against other providers.

Free Child Critical Illness Cover

With Aviva’s Critical Illness Cover, your children are covered for free automatically. With some providers, this is an optional add-on for an extra premium.

Standard Child Cover Only For Children Aged 30 Days +

While Aviva’s Child Critical Illness Cover is free, the core policy only covers children from 30 days old.

With Aviva, you must upgrade your cover for your children to be protected from birth. There are other insurers that include children’s cover from birth, free as standard.

19 ABI+ Definitions For Critical Illness Cover

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) provides model definitions of critical conditions that all insurers must adhere to.

However, these are only minimum standards. Many insurers go above and beyond for some conditions, offering what’s known as an ABI+ definition. That’s a definition better than the minimum standard ABI requires.

Aviva’s 2022 claim statistics show they’ve paid out of 93.5% of all Critical Illness claims.

Cancer was the most common claim in both adults (58%) and children (36%), making Aviva’s upgraded cover all the more beneficial.

Ben Brooks
Independent Protection Expert

Aviva uses 19 ABI+ definitions for their Critical Illness Cover, which is one of the highest in the market.

10 Day Survival Period

With Critical Illness Cover, Aviva requires you to survive for 10 days after your critical diagnosis in order to receive your claim. This is shorter than the 14-day survival period, which some other insurers have.

Excellent Free Additional Benefits

Aviva DigiCare+ offers a fantastic range of additional benefits with many free services included. Many other insures don’t offer such features, such as annual health checks or mental health support.

Enhance Your Policy With Paid Extras

Aviva gives you the chance to add on paid extras such as Fracture Cover, Global Treatment, and Extra Care Cover. These features aren’t typical of other Critical Illness providers.

However, there are other providers that include some of Aviva’s paid additional features for free, as standard. We’ll detail each of these below.

Digital GP Appointments An Optional Extra

Offering a digital GP service is also a rarity among Critical Illness providers. While Aviva does offer this, it doesn’t come for free. Instead, you need to pay a cost and even then, there’s a limit of three appointments per year.

Many of the other providers that do offer a remote GP service include it for free and don’t limit the number of appointments you can have.

Waiver Of Premium Not Standard

Similarly, there are some insurers that include Waiver of Premium cover as standard. Sadly, Aviva is not one of them, and it’ll cost you a bit more if you want to include a premium waiver on your policy.

Total Permanent Disability Cover Not Standard

As you may know, Total Permanent Disability comes included under most Critical Illness policies. It pays out if you become completely and irreversibly disabled through illness or injury that you can’t ever work again.

Total Permanent Disability (TPD) is an optional add-on to Aviva’s Critical Illness policy. This means it’s not one of the standard conditions the policy covers. There are other providers which incorporate TPD cover into their policy as standard.

Critical Illness Cover can vary widely between providers. For example, Aviva is one of the only insurers that includes specific mental health disorders in its critical conditions.

We always recommend speaking to an expert who can get you the best terms for any specific conditions you may be worried about. You can get in touch with us on 02084327333 or help@drewberry.co.uk.

Bradley Fedarb
Independent Protection Expert

How Much Does Aviva Critical Illness+ Insurance Cost?

The sad truth is, it’s more likely for us to develop a serious condition than it is for us to die young. As a result, Critical Illness Cover can become quite pricey. And we understand that most of our clients need to work within a certain budget for their protection.

Since we recommend combined Life & Critical Illness policies for our clients, we’ve gained some example quotes for a combined policy below. The examples show a variety of ages, but they’re all based on a person who:

• Wants £250,000 of decreasing cover to link to their mortgage
• Needs a policy term of 25 years
• Is in a low risk, office-based role
• Has no pre-existing conditions
• Does not smoke.

As you’d expect, the cost of cover steadily increases with age, due to the increased risk of falling ill that comes with growing older.

The actual cost of your own policy will depend on your circumstances, for example, your age, medical history, and lifestyle factors.

If you know you need cover, don’t wait too long to apply. Taking it out at a younger age could save you hundreds—if not thousands—over the term of a policy!

Compare Aviva Critical Illness+ Insurance Quotes & Get Expert Advice

In our experience, taking out Critical Illness Cover can be complicated if you’re new to this kind of protection. You might also be worried about a particular condition, or have some specific needs your policy should meet.

There are a lot of competitive Critical Illness policies out there that you’ll probably consider when shopping around. Each insurer has their own approach to risk and their own definitions of critical conditions. Having an expert on your side can help ensure you’re getting the best coverage possible.

As an independent and impartial consultancy, we’ll compare quotes across the whole of the market. Our friendly team will make an expert recommendation to suit your personal needs.

Why Speak to Us?

We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.

We all deserve a first class service when it comes to issues as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

• There is no fee for our service
• We are an award winning 🏆 independent insurance broker who works with all the leading UK insurers
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
• We are very proud of the 3955 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5
• Claims support when you need it most.
• We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. You can find us on the financial services register here 🧐

To speak to one of our friendly experts, you can pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

Or, if you’re confident you know what you’re looking for, you can use our Critical Illness quote tool. This helps you compare the cost across the top Critical Illness providers in the UK.