Scottish Widows has a rich history that’s closely tied to its name. The origins of the company date back to 1815, more than 200 years ago, during the Napoleonic Wars.
As the tale goes, a group of eminent Scotsmen met in an Edinburgh Coffee Room to talk about how provisions could be made for soldiers’ widows. With no income of their own, wives, sisters and daughters of fallen soldiers would be thrown into poverty.
Now, more than 200 years later, Scottish Widows is still committed to protecting individuals and families. They have nearly 6 million customers across the UK, with a wide range of pension and protection products. This includes their Critical Illness policy, which has earned a 5-star Defaqto rating.
By reaching this page, you’re eligible for 2 months FREE cover when you arrange a new Critical Illness policy.
Simply fill in the form below to apply for your 2 months free discount or call us on 02084327333 stating the code VC2MF.
True to its origins, Scottish Widows offers some unique features with their Critical Illness policy. In the below table, we’ve detailed all the main points you need to know.
Scottish Widows Critical Illness Coverage | |
|---|---|
Minimum Benefit | £10,000 |
Maximum Benefit | £3 million |
Type Of Cover |
|
Minimum Entry Age | 18 |
Maximum Entry Age | 64 |
Standalone? | ✅ |
Joint Cover? | ✅ Joint life first diagnosis only |
Premium Type |
|
Waiver of Premium | Optional (known as Premium Protection) |
Survival Period | 10 days |
Full Conditions |
|
Children’s Cover | Included for free when you take out your own policy. Children are covered from birth to age 22 for:
|
While 40 critical conditions may not seem like enough, Scottish Widows actually groups some of their critical conditions together. We’ll explain this in a bit more detail below.
It’s important to understand these features so that you understand what kind of coverage you’ll be getting.
Scottish Widows don’t split out their Critical Illness Cover into a core policy with an option to upgrade. From the get-go, they cover 30 full critical conditions, including Total Permanent Disability, and 10 additional payment conditions.
Most providers have detailed definitions for each condition they cover. The terms will even specify how severe the condition needs to be. And if you don’t meet the exact specifications or severity, you won’t be able to claim.
Scottish Widows groups some of their conditions together. So, for example, 6 different types of heart surgery sit under their ‘Heart and Vascular Surgeries’ conditions. In other words, one condition covers you for the equivalent of 6 illnesses.
There are several instances of this in Scottish Widows’ terms. It’s important to understand what definitions Scottish Widows use, rather than just the number of conditions covered.
When you take out a Critical Illness policy with Scottish Widows, any natural, step, or adopted children you have are insured, too. They’re covered from birth until age 22 for:
It’s important to know that if you claim on the child cover, your policy remains in effect. But if you claim on your own cover, the policy stops—and the child cover along with it.
With Scottish Widows, you’ll receive a ‘booster payment’ if you’re diagnosed with an approved Neurological condition before the age of 45. The approved conditions are:
You’ll receive either 150% of your benefit or £200,000—whichever is lower. And what’s more; this booster payment comes on top of your current cover.
If you’re on any UK waiting list for one of Scottish Widows’ approved surgeries, they’ll advance your claim. This means that rather than waiting until after you’ve had the surgery, you can receive the payout more quickly.
The approved surgeries include:
Another important feature is that Scottish Widows offer a standalone Critical Illness policy. If you have enough life cover elsewhere, you can take out Critical Illness on its own, rather than having a combined Life & Critical Illness policy.
You do need to be aware that this option is only available through a financial adviser.
In our experience, standalone Critical Cover is only suitable if you have plenty of life protection already. But generally, we don’t recommend it.
Remember, you’ll only receive your claim if you survive for 10 days after a diagnosis. So if you die suddenly from a critical condition, a standalone policy won’t pay out at all.
With a combined policy, you’re covered in either event: death or a critical diagnosis.
Rauri Taylor
Independent Protection Expert
It’s not unusual for insurers to have an upper limit to how much cover you can take out. Scottish Widows also sets out a minimum amount of cover you can have, of £10,000.
Not only can you take out level or decreasing cover, but with Scottish Widows, you can also have increasing cover. The idea of this is to protect your benefit from reducing in real terms as a result of inflation.
You can only take out this option when you apply through a financial adviser, and you need to decide at the start of your policy. Once it’s in place, your cover increases each year in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation.
Your benefit will always increase by at least 2% each year, but never by more than 10%. To cover the cost of the increase, your premiums will also go up. Scottish Widows will write to you to let you know your new premium.
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If you don’t want to accept the increase, you can turn it down for a year. But if you decline it for two years in a row, it’ll stop. From then on, your policy and premiums will be level, with no option to go back to increasing cover later.
If you have a joint policy and one person claims (either for Life or Critical Illness), the policy ends and the cover stops for both people. But with Scottish Widows’ replacement cover, the surviving partner can take out a new policy for themselves.
You need to apply within 3 months of the claim being paid on your original policy. Once it’s in place, the new plan will keep the same terms and conditions as the original one. But, the premiums will increase, as they’ll be based on the rates at the time the replacement policy is taken out.
Scottish Widows also offers Guaranteed Insurability Options. With these, you can increase your benefit without any more medical questions after certain life events.
As long as you’re aged 55 or under, you can use these options following these significant life events:
The maximum amount you can increase your policy by is the lower of 50% of your original benefit, or £150,000. Or, if your mortgage or salary has gone up by less than these figures, your increase will be capped at that amount.
If you’ve had a protection policy before, you’ll know that it’s not just a matter of taking out a policy with great coverage. Another factor to consider is the range of extra benefits that come included.
Scottish Widows offers their policyholders a range of free additional benefits. These come under 2 different services: Scottish Widows Care and Clinic in a Pocket™.
Through their partnership with RedArc, Scottish Widows offers support of a few kinds:
RedArc’s fully qualified nurses can provide you with free advice in a range of areas:
Many of these services are designed to supplement the care you’ll need if you suffer from a critical condition. And it’s not just you as the policyholder who can use the service, but your family members, too.
RedArc also offers a face-to-face second medical opinion service. You can have a top, UK-based specialist review your diagnosis and treatment plan, and offer reassurance or alternative options.
Lastly, RedArc can also provide courses of therapy for a few purposes. This could be counselling, complementary therapies, or occupational therapy to help you through your rehabilitation.
Scottish Widows’ other branch of benefits comes from Clinic in a Pocket™ (provided by Square Health). This is an app that gives you 24/7 access to remote GP appointments and prescription delivery services.
As a policyholder, both you and your family members can request appointments for any health concerns you may have. The remote GPs can offer support by:
The private prescriptions can be delivered to you for free, but you might have to pay for your medication.
Red Arc and Clinic in a Pocket are a good combination of free benefits that pair well with a Critical Illness policy.
You can enhance your cover further with other add-ons, but these tend to cost a bit more each month.
Ben Brooks
Independent Protection Expert
Another benefit you might qualify for is Scottish Widows’ Free Cover. You could be accepted for free mortgage cover while Scottish Widows consider your application.
If you’re accepted, Scottish Widows will pay your full benefit up to £500,000 if you develop a critical condition during the application process. There are limits, and it’s offered at Scottish Widows’ discretion, so it’s not a guarantee.
If you have a combined Life & Critical Illness policy and claim for a critical condition, your whole policy will end. To stop you from losing your life protection, Scottish Widows offers you a Life Cover Buyback option.
This lets you ‘buy back’ your Life Cover after making a Critical Illness claim. You need to use this feature within 3 months of claiming for your critical condition. Then, your continued life cover will come back into place 12 months after your critical claim was paid.
If you want to add Life Cover Buyback to your combined Life & Critical policy, you need to decide at the start of your policy. Also, it’ll cost you a bit extra in your monthly premiums.
Or, you also have the option of having separate, standalone policies for Life Insurance and Critical Illness. With Scottish Widows, these can sit under one menu plan. This might suit you better if you want different amounts of life and critical protection.
Like many providers, Scottish Widows offers a Waiver of Premium add-on known as Premium Protection. It has the same function, just under a different name.
If you’re unable to work due to a sickness or accident, Scottish Widows will waive your policy premiums for you. It’ll kick in if you’re off work for 26 weeks and will continue until:
Again, you need to decide if you want this benefit added on at the start of your policy. If you do, it’ll come at an extra cost on your monthly premiums.
Understanding a provider’s features and benefits is just one part of the battle. If you’re choosing the right provider for your Critical Illness policy, you need to know how they compare to other insurers.
So, how do Scottish Widows measure up against what other providers offer?
As we mentioned before, Scottish Widows offers a full coverage policy from day one. When you take out their Critical Illness policy, you get all the following:
Not only that, but you can decide to take out standalone Critical Illness, or combine it with a Life Insurance policy. The flexibility and coverage on offer makes Scottish Widows policy a very competitive option.
Some providers don’t include Total Permanent Disability as a standard critical condition. In such cases, you need to pay extra each month to include it in your cover. Scottish Widows, however, include it as a full condition at no extra cost.
Some providers offer Children’s Critical Illness Cover only as an optional add-on, which costs extra. With Scottish Widows, it comes included in the premium you’ll pay yourself.
If you don’t have children (or plan to have any), this may not be a selling point. But if you do have children, or intend to have them, you probably won’t want to pay more to cover them. This could make Scottish Widows a good option for people with kids.
When you’re diagnosed with a critical condition, you need to survive for a certain time before you’ll be able to claim. Some providers have a 14-day survival period, but Scottish Widows only require you to survive for 10 days.
Premium Protection is Scottish Widows’ term for Waiver of Premium. To add this on, you will need to pay a little extra each month. But there are providers on the market that offer Waiver of Premium cover as standard.
Scottish Widows provides some useful extra benefits for free. As we’ve seen, you’ll get access to a 24/7 remote GP service, and several types of support from Red Arc. These combine well with Critical Illness Cover, to help support you through any health concerns.
While it may not be a deal-breaker, there are other providers who offer more comprehensive extras. For example, some insurers give you access to mental health support, physiotherapy, and health check-ups.
A crucial factor most of our clients need to know is how much cover costs. So, to give you an idea of what you might pay for a Scottish Widows policy, we’ve got some examples.
These quotes show the monthly cost of a combined Life & Critical Illness policy at different ages. We’ve based them on someone who:
Monthly Premiums | 30 Years Old | 40 Years Old | 50 Years Old |
|---|---|---|
£46.32 | £90.21 | £179.00* |
As you can see, the monthly premiums rapidly increase with age. Sadly, this is due to the natural fact that we’re more likely to fall seriously ill when we’re older.
It’s important to remember that these are just examples. Your policy premiums may vary quite a bit, depending on your own cover choices and personal factors, such as age, lifestyle, and health.
It’s a fact that Critical Illness policies always cost more over time. The younger you are when you take out cover, the more money you can save in the long run.
Working with a protection adviser not only gets you the best cover, but also gets you an expert negotiator in your corner to find the best possible price.
To see how we can help you, speak to a protection expert by calling 02084327333.
Alex Weir
Independent Protection Expert
Choosing the right Critical Illness provider can be tricky, because each provider differs so much. For instance, at first glance you might feel concerned that Scottish Widows covers only 40 conditions.
But when you understand that they group conditions together, you can appreciate that Scottish Widows offers a comprehensive Critical Illness policy. This is why it’s risky to “do-it-yourself” when it comes to setting up cover.
As an independent consultancy, we’ll conduct an impartial market review for your needs. Once you’re happy with the coverage and cost, we’ll make sure everything is set up smoothly on your behalf.
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.
If you have questions or need advice, pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk. Our friendly team is always happy to help.
Or, if you know what you’re looking for, you can use our Critical Illness quote tool. This can help you compare the cost across the top UK providers and apply online.
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