Standard Life And Scottish Provident Critical Illness Claim Statistics.

Critical illness cover has become a common type of insurance policy in the UK. Many people have bought critical illness cover to protect their family in the future or may be to secure their mortgage. Research has shown that combined critical illness policy sales may have surpassed that of standalone policies down the years. Most of the accelerated cover sold may have been critical illness related mortgage cover.

Standard Life, one among the leading insurance companies in the UK had released its critical illness claims statistics recently. Let’s have a look.

Standard Life may have paid around GBP 9.8 million in approximately 184 critical illness claims during the mid of July 2006. It also stated that the average claim value could have been approximately GBP 53,546. The biggest amount of claim paid for, may have been about GBP 300,000. Moreover, 60 percent of critical illness claims could have come from people aged between 40 and 59 followed by 32 percent aged between 0 to 39. Also 8 percent of critical illness claims could have been made by people over the age of 60. Furthermore, 52 percent of claimants could have been women while 42 percent could have been men. Finally, two child benefits claims could have been awarded for leukemia.

Additionally, Standard Life had also revealed its top five causes for critical illness claims. The results showed a critical illness like cancer in the first position with 60 percent claims followed by heart attack with 11 percent claims. The other three critical illnesses could have been multiple sclerosis with 8 percent claims, stroke 4 percent and benign brain tumour 3 percent. Furthermore, 14 percent of critical illness claims could have been turned down. Around 8 percent may not have met policy definitions while the remaining 6 percent could have been due to non disclosure.

Another company named Scottish Provident had recently issued some statistics concerning critical illness claims. Scottish Provident affirms that around GBP 169 million may have been paid as critical illness claims. Also, the average amount of money paid as claim might have been around GBP 70,425. The claimants had an average age of 42 while the average time the policy was in force could have been about 35 months. In addition to, the illnesses claimed for could be classified as follows: 55 percent of people suffered from a critical illness such as cancer, around 13 percent contracted heart attack, nearly 5 percent may have been affected by a critical illness like stroke, about 4 percent may have been victims of Multiple sclerosis, approximately 4 percent may have been patients of heart surgery and finally 19 percent could have contracted other critical illnesses.

As seen earlier, both companies stated different statistics. But the similarity remains that most critical illness claims may have been due to cancer. Cancer, more precisely breast cancer is more common among women. On the other hand, heart attack may be the most frequent cause of critical illness claim among men. Considering critical illness cover may be a definite advantage especially to those who are in charge of a family. The risk of contracting a critical illness may be elevated so, you might not gamble with the fact that this cannot happen to you.

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