to expect parents to have life insurance as a matter of course?

[probablyoverinsured]

Is it not the first thing you think about when you first hold your newborn? How can I best care for this little one? What do I need to do/sacrifice to ensure their welfare? in any circumstances?

I appreciate you can't be insured for every eventuality, and with the best will in the world, you can think you have taken out adequate insurance, and in the event it doesn't actually pay out for some reason or other.

But it's about £2 a week, in most cases - surely this is factored into the cost of providing for a child, when you do your calculations? I expect there are a few that can't afford it, but most can.

I am just amazed to hear of someone recently, really struggling, with no life insurance payout for the children, because there was no policy.

Am I living in a fool's paradise? Don't most parents have life insurance? Am I just showing my ignorance? Why wouldn't a parent have life insurance? Do you? if not, why not?

Those of you saying you can't afford it - what's your plan for losing one of your incomes overnight?

If your finances are that tight as is, that would arguably mean that there's no way the household can carry the existing mortgage/potentially remortgage if you died.

If you're the SAHP, then maybe it's okay to only insure the earner - although there's suddenly going to be a lot of childcare etc bills in the mix - but if you're any part of the income to the household either via work, or via benefits if too unwell to work - how is the remaining partner covering the gap? You're setting up for a scenario where your children don't just lose a parent, they also lose their home. If that means eviction and council housing follows, that could also be schools, friends, hobbies etc

And, if you're a single parent, without an involved other parent, then you're leaving your child/children dependent on relative/friend/in care - whatever your plan is - with no way to compensate for the increased expenses of that and nothing to substitute for parental support for driving/uni/house deposits etc.

"I can't believe the vote on this one! I was a struggling lone parent with my first but still had a small life insurance policy to make sure she'd be financially helped at least a little if I died. Now, married with 2 DC (the eldest is an adult now so only 1 dependent), I have fairly decent cover (£250k but we're mortgage free thankfully) plus cancer cover plus death in service benefit of (I think) four times my annual salary.

There'll be no go fund me or just giving pages set up to finance my family if the worst should happen - it's a basic responsibility of a parent, as the OP says"

There won't be for me either you CF, and I don't have life insurance. Judgemental or what?!

Funny you expect them to pay out before the funeral. My friends husband died and she waited 6 weeks for the money. She was skint at the time but he had a military funeral.

I have work death in service - 4.5 x salary.

Plus would it heck as like be £2 a week for me. I have existing medical conditions.

Oh and for the record. There's nothing wrong with a council house.

We have it, but when we moved we can’t get any to cover me due to mental health conditions. So if I die it wouldn’t cover the mortgage.

My DH has it but I don't. Sadly, having previously suffered poor mental health and several suicide attempts (well before my kids were born I hasten to add) it is almost impossible to find cover. My children are named as beneficiarys of my death in work policy and my pension is a decent, final salary type one.

Without being morbid, both sets of parents are divorced and one set of my grandparents are fairly wealthy. So I dont worry too much about leaving behind money for my kids as I/we are set to inherit a fair amount.

it's a basic responsibility of a parent, as the OP says.

Good for you, I've had health conditions which make insurance unaffordable for me.

It may be, what you perceive as, a basic responsibility, but so is feeding my kids and keeping a roof over their heads, I had a choice to make and my choice is doing what needs to be done now.

Not everyone lives in a bubble of perfect health and being able to afford life insurance no problem.

When we took out our (now paid off) mortgage we needed to have life assurance in order to get it.

You don't need life insurance to get a mortgage. That's an urban myth

YANBU but it's certainly not £2 a week for everyone. Different policies/age etc all come into it.
However I was one of the first things I did when I became a lone parent even though money was v tight. I don't have any property so it was important to me that my ds would be provided for should I die so yes I have a chunky life insurance policy and a will.

Have a medal 🏅

Good life insurance and critical illness cover - and for the same reason you have life insurance you really need both - costs a lot more than that (but pays out without question or argument when you really need it).

Even good critical illness cover can get stymied however without the proof you need to pay - as was the case with me in summer when my NHS consultant told me he was too busy to fill out the form for six months whilst I had cancer and was in and out of hospital until I finally begged my MP to help.

And both will cost even more if you dare to get sick. I’m currently looking for anything that will cover me at all for the next five years, even with cancer exclusions.

Mines £8.40 a month - 36, ex-smoker

@probablyoverinsured I am mid 40s (so not "young", but still not elderly!) healthy and a non smoker
My LI and CI costs me £60 a month.
The only reason I have them is that I am a single parent and if I am ill or die, I want to make sure the kids are ok.
It really isn't anywhere NEAR £2 a week, I have no idea where you've plucked that figure from.
You no longer have to have it as a requirement of your mortgage.
If I was still married, I'm not sure it would feature as highly on my list of priorities as it does as a single parent

I'm actually really upset by the privilege and attitude in your posts op.

So I'm not taking on basic responsibility as a parent because I'm disabled and can't get affordable life insurance?

What the actual fuck?

Ooh you've upset a lot of people!
Thank heavens you didn't ask if we'd all insured our homes, contents, cars and holidays!

Endowment mortgages came with cover to repay them in the event of death.

We are cautious and financially savvy and DH took.out life insurance and critical illness insurance when we were ttc. I had cover through work and the top up repayment mortgage was pinned on two endowment policies taken out in 81 and 86 respectively worth £23k and £37k. When our first baby arrived he took.out life insurance for me on the basis that he would have to fund childcare if anything happened to me.

Now the DC are grown up we have let the life insurance lapse but both have critical illness insurance and generous death in service benefits with our jobs together with 6 months full pay/6months half pay if we were ill.

It gave peace of mind and I regularly had the opportunity to tell him to stop fussing lest I greased the stairs.

I had good death in service cover with my job for many years so didn't need it. When I eventually left that job (unexpectedly as a result of covid redundancies) I was older and had health conditions so premiums were ridiculous. So I haven't bothered.

I would suggest that if you're 30 years old and have a mortgage, then that amount of cover is not going to touch covering your mortgage. Unless you live in a really cheap area.

Not sure how old you are OP, but I was only advised to get life insurance when I got a mortgage 25 years ago, it's not been mentioned in any of my remortgages since (for 20 years). Cheapest I could get in my 20s was £20/month.

No one will cover me for critical illness as I have diabetes (some specialist companies may for extortionate rates and with exclusions so it's really not worth me bothering).

My work pension will pay out 3-4x salary (in addition to pension pot) if I die, so hopefully that's enough to cover the mortgage balance at least. I know others are not fortunate enough to have this.

In an ideal world everything would be able to have affordable life/critical illness cover. But sadly we don't.

I have insured all of those.

However, because I'm disabled I'm relying on my DIS and critical illness that I get through work because I already pay for it via pension contributions and also because I'm disabled it's extortionately expensive and nowhere near £2 a week

Mine is £200 a month (for £120k cover only - which covers the mortgage). I'm in my 40s but with a long-standing chronic health condition. If I die from something related to that condition I'm not even covered!

DH has no cover - I'm relying on his pension death in service benefit if the worst happened.

I can fully understand why others do not have it.

We had it until the mortgage was paid off, our children are now adults, we cancelled it when the mortgage was paid off as that was why we had it. We both have death benefit protection through work and pension pots.

pretty pointless these days.

We've only just sorted it for ourselves. We're in our 40s, DH is a smoker and I have multiple health conditions and it costs us £20 a week. It also covers DC until they turn 18 though (only our youngest one is now covered with it as eldest is over 18).

Sales pitch....
Or market research....
Or both...
Market research questions:
Am I living in a fool's paradise? Don't most parents have life insurance? Am I just showing my ignorance? Why wouldn't a parent have life insurance? Do you? if not, why not?