How much does critical illness cost?

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I’m a single parent age 48, with one DS age 8. I work full-time, have a largish mortgage and a very small pension. Some savings, but not much - around 5k.

I’m very aware that if I get ill, or can’t work, I’m pretty stuffed, but I don’t really know what I need. Life insurance, probably, and some sort of cover in case I can’t work.

I’m planning to see an IFA, but can anyone wiser than me run me quickly through the main options? And maybe an idea of cost (although obvs this depends on a huge number of factors)

Thanks

I can't remember how.much ours cost. I think it was about £20 a month. We asked our financial advisor to find one that covered for cancer and he did. A year later my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma and they paid out no questions asked. We are now mortgage free. Would strongly recommend getting it and best to get it while you have no medical conditions

Life insurance is a must to protect your child (so that the cost of raising him is coveted). It is reasonably cheap if you are in good health, and you may not need it once your son turns 18. You may have life cover through work - you should check whether your employer offers it.

Critical illness pays out if you develop certain conditions (cancer, stroke etc) but the terms are strict and it is expensive. Personally I don’t think this insurance is worthwhile unless you have lots of cash to spare. Others will take a different view.

Income protection pays out if you are unable to work due to illness, redundancy etc. It will pay a percentage of your salary (higher % means higher premiums), often for a set period (eg 12 months). I think this cover can be useful, to cover short term illness/being out of work, but won’t protect your income forever. Again, some employers provide this type of cover (for illness) for their employees.

The cost is dependent on so many factors it is impossible to tell. We have 150k of life insurance for my husband that’s about £11 a month, he’s mid 40s. The other types of cover are significantly more expensive - but you’d need to get quotes.

My priority would be life cover and pension saving. You could spend a lot on insurance that you never use. If you are too ill to work you can access your pension early - I would rather save the premiums into a pension, as the chances are you will get to retirement, and without a pension it would be pretty bleak.

Unfortunately there’s very rarely enough money to pay to protect against everything, so you’ll need to decide what is right for you and your son.

Thanks Snuffkindle and Slipperlizard. All useful info. Good to know about income protection v critical illness cover too. Thanks

Mine is expensive - £95 a month for £100,000 of cover. But I have hereditary cancer risk on both sides of my family, which took it up to £50-odd, and then my bloody PCOS took it up to £95 due to the increased risks for strokes, diabetes, heart attack and hypertension. A broker tried for weeks to get the price down but they were all roughly the same. It's shit, but I am single, no parents (died of cancer pretty young) and I need the security of knowing that if I have to take six months off for chemotherapy, that my mortgage will be paid etc. I just have to suck it up.

We found income protection better than critical illness cover which had quite specific conditions in order to pay out. Costs more depending on your age and the value of it. Mine is still only at 24k salary and deferred for a year and that costs about £12 a month. I keep forgetting to increase the value of it.

Critical illness is fine if you get one of the illnesses they cover.
Not good if you get a serious, progressive condition, have to stop work, then find you aren't covered.
That is what happened to me.
Income protection sounds worth looking into.