Critical illness cover or income protection

[WeWantTheFinestWines]

I am in my 50s and healthy, but want some sort of financial protection in case I get a serious illness that will affect my income. I have 2 DCs but am not with their DF. We co-parent, though, and his DM is quite well off and involved with her GCs so I think the kids would be ok if my income dropped. But I need to be able to continue paying rent, bills, etc.

I've had 2 quotes with similar monthly premiums but one pays out a monthly amount for a year (critical illness cover), that would cover all my ongoings, while the other one pays out a lump sum, that would also cover all my outgoings (income protection).

I've got two companies vying for my business; it feels like a big decision and I've got this niggling feeling that I'm missing something here.

Has anyone been through this decision-making process and what did they choose?

@WeWantTheFinestWines income protection pays out a monthly income to cover your expenses (or part of your income) until you are alright to get back to work, and it pays for all medical reasons that keeps you from working.

Whereas critical illness only pays you for a list of illness stated in the policy document.

however if you do look at it, some of the most commonly claimed reasons are illnesses such as back pain & mental illness, which are not covered by critical illness.

if you had to choose one over the other, i'd recommend you go for income protection. even more imagining the worst, if you were to not be able to get back to work for over a year then income protection can keep covering you for it and critical illness would not

we did buy our policies from an online broker www.anorak.life and they did go through these with us.

Thay is so helpful, thank you!!!

I am not sure what the point of a one year cover is for income protection and a lump sum that will last you for one year. Ok, it will take care of your most immediate needs but what if you are still unable to work after one year?

The couple of friends I have who've spurred me on to this both had cancer treatment that took them beyond their occupational sick payments so for them a year would have been perfect as they're both back at work. I'm thinking many illnesses might be serious but treatable. Not sure I could afford the premiums for something where I could never work again 😪
I've got a phone call booked with a broker.

It sounds like what you've had quotes for are Accident & Sickness policies, rather than Income Protection and Critical Illness policies in their true sense.

Whichever, the devil is in the detail. Try to think about what specific situations you are wanting to insure yourself against, and what the likelihood of those situations occurring is. Think about what options are already available to you - e.g. what your work's sick pay deal is - and what other alternative solutions there might be to your problem. What are the bills that absolutely have to be met and will either of these policies do that? What happens after they expire if you are still sick/can't work - how might you manage then?

This will help you to prepare for your conversation with the broker.

Thank you sunseed that's really helpful.