What’s covered under our critical illness cover?

Loss of the physical or mental ability through an illness or injury to the extent that you are unable to do the material and substantial duties of your own occupation ever again. The material and substantial duties are those that are normally required for, and/or form a significant and integral part of the performance of your own occupation that cannot reasonably be omitted or modified. 

Own occupation means your trade, profession or type of work you do for profit or pay. It is not a specific job with any particular employer and is irrespective of location and availability.

The relevant specialist must reasonably expect that the disability will last throughout life with no prospect of improvement, irrespective of when the cover ends or you expect to retire. 

For the above definition, disabilities for which relevant specialists cannot give a clear prognosis are not covered. 

Loss of the physical ability through an illness or injury to do at least three of the six work tasks listed below, ever again. 

The relevant specialists must reasonably expect that the disability will last throughout life with no prospect of improvement, irrespective of when the cover ends or you expect to retire. 

You must need the help or supervision of another person and be unable to perform the task on your own, even with the use of special equipment routinely available to help and having taken any appropriate prescribed medication. 

The specified work tasks are:

• Walking - The ability to walk more than 200 metres on a level service
• Climbing - the ability to climb up a flight of 12 stairs and down again, using the handrail if needed.
• Lifting - the ability to pick up an object weighing 2kg at table height and hold for 60 seconds before replacing the object on the table. 
• Bending - the ability to bend or kneel to touch the floor and straighten up again
• Getting in and out of a car - the ability to get into a standard saloon car, and get out again.
• Writing - the manual dexterity to write legibly using a pen or pencil, or type using a desktop computer keyboard.

For the above definition, disabilities for which the relevant specialists cannot give a clear prognosis are not covered. 

• The illnesses covered include cancer, heart attack and stroke, but because of advances in medicine, not all occurrences of these illness are covered. For example, a cancer needs to have spread or reached a specified severity to be covered under the policy.
• Advances in medicine and technology mean that traditional views of critical illnesses are constantly changing. For example, not all types of cancer are covered by this insurance and to make a claim for some illnesses you need to have permanent symptoms.
• Above is a list of specified critical illnesses covered by our current policies. If the person covered has a critical illness it has to be verified by a medical specialist who holds an appointment as a consultant at a hospital in the UK and whose specialism we reasonably consider is appropriate to the critical illness.
• Please remember that the heading of each critical illness is only a guide to what is covered. Further details of how we will consider your claim, including the full definitions we will use and the evidence we will need, are given in the policy terms and conditions, which will be sent to you when your policy starts.
• If you already have critical illness cover with us, please refer to your original policy document for full terms and conditions and definitions available to you. The illnesses you're already covered for may be different from those listed above. If you want to discuss this further or are unsure about what illnesses apply to you, please contact your financial adviser or Legal & General. You can call us on 0370 010 4080 between 8:30am and 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturday. Call charges will vary. We may record and monitor calls.