Is this enough critical illness cover?

[emmaalwaysinadilemma]

DH and I took out life insurance with critical illness cover 5 years ago. We have two children. We've got a mortgage of £125k and our outgoings are £1400 per month, £500 of which is mortgage. Our household income is only £1700 a month (thanks covid!) but we are managing fine so far.

Anyway, the life insurance cover is fixed at £150k (and won't decrease even though mortgage balance will). We added critical illness cover of £50k, but this is expensive and is over two thirds the monthly cost of the plan. At the time I was very conflicted, as part of me thinks it's one of those things they would avoid paying out on anyway. But another part of me thinks maybe we should actually have a bit more cover. Would love any advice from those with better understanding than me

Is your remaining income stable? So would you get 6 months full pay it off sick?

I probably would if you can afford it. Just because it could be such an emotional time if something were to happen that you'd ideally want no money worries at all and also life could be more expensive - you may need addition children care, cleaning etc
What you've got is a great start so I'd balance it against making sure it wouldn't leave you too short now . I'm reviewing ours right now and it's a sobering thought but so important for those left behind xx

@SandysMam we've got a full year's salary saved up in case of sickness, job loss etc.

I think the idea behind 50k was that it would give us an "income" for about three years should one of us become critically ill.

I think it is enough if paying for it would otherwise leave you skint every month. Well done for having the savings in the first place!!

Tbh I have no experience of critical insurance
But I have a friend who is a financial advisor . She opted for insurance
that covered accident, illness and redundancy.
She was off work for 9 months and got sick pay plus insurance
money (jammy) but it was not heart, cancer etc.
Sometimes it is better just to pay a bit more

Check out Income Protection too. Critical illness only covers a very specific list of conditions, whereas IP covers any illness that leaves you unable to work and goes on paying until you’re well enough to work again.

Thanks @BobbingPuffins, I'll have a look at that and see how it compares to what I've got

I have about £150k critical illness cover but no sickness cover.

This is because I get up to 2 years sickness cover (decreasing percentage) which would be fine to live on as I don't have a mortgage but if I get a critical illness I am at that age where I might have to consider retiring early so I wanted a decent amount.

I am just describing my circumstances because it really does depend on individual finances.

You need to think about what would be required to cover if one of you got a critical illness. If you look down the list of illnesses it covers they tend to be ones you would struggle to work with or if you can you might expect a significant period of time for treatments/recovery. How would you cope in that situation and would £50k be enough of a buffer.

I've only got £20k critical illness with my life insurance of £160k. Can't really afford more and it would get me over the first year so I wouldn't be rushed into selling house etc. I have no mortgage. Life has to change in those circumstances it's just about having chance to plan the changes. I have been through this as a teen when a parent received a diagnosis of a life changing illness.

There’s a good piece here comparing Critical Illness cover and Income Protection: moneytothemasses.com/quick-savings/insurance-2/income-protection-insurance-insurance-2/critical-illness-vs-income-protection-which-is-best

I haven’t been able to work since I became ill a couple of years ago. I was very lucky because I had taken out Income Protection just a few years before. Claiming was completely straightforward and it’s been paying out ever since. My illness wouldn’t have been covered by a Critical Illness policy.

I would say critical illness is essential, I was just going to take out a policy for my DH, lucky I took one out for me too, I needed to claim unfortunately.

I would 100% keep paying the critical illness cover. My father in law cancelled his about 20+ years ago. A couple of months after he got cancer and was very poorly and nearly didn’t make it. Thankfully he did but he is gutted as he would have had his 800k mortgage paid off