Critical Illness Cover

You must be a UK resident when you apply to be eligible. The maximum age limit for taking out Critical Illness Cover is 67, and the minimum term length is two years. What’s more, your policy must end before you turn 75, and the maximum length of your policy is 50 years.

Depending on your medical history, some conditions may be excluded from your policy but each application is looked at on an individual basis. You'll be informed of any exclusions during your application process.

For more information, please refer to our

Policy Summary PDF: 222.43KB

Legal & General’s Critical Illness Cover covers a range of specified critical illnesses. This includes various cancers, excluding less advanced cases.

The list of illnesses we cover includes many types of cancer, heart attack and stroke. However, some types of cancer are not included and you need to have permanent symptoms to make a claim for some illnesses.

For more information on Critical Illness Cover, list of the illnesses we cover

You can still apply for Critical Illness Cover after you’ve been diagnosed with a health condition. Each application is considered on an individual basis, but some conditions may be excluded from your Critical Illness Cover (you’ll be informed of any exclusions during the application) and in some circumstances we wouldn't be able to offer cover at all. Read more on our Policy Summary PDF: 222.43KB

The main difference between Critical Illness Cover and Terminal Illness Cover is that Critical Illness Cover is designed to payout if you are diagnosed with one of the specified critical illnesses that we cover. Terminal Illness Cover pays out if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness (when life expectancy is less than 12 months).

What’s more, whether you’re taking out Life Insurance to protect your family’s overall finances, or Decreasing Life Insurance to cover a repayment mortgage, Critical Illness Cover is added at an extra cost. In contrast, Terminal Illness Cover is automatically included with these policies at no extra cost.

Finally, a Terminal Illness Cover payout brings a life insurance policy to an end; in contrast, Critical Illness Cover can pay out separately to your life insurance.

Learn more about the differences between terminal illness cover and critical illness cover.

Yes, we will automatically include Children's Critical Illness Cover when you select Critical Illness Cover. If your child is diagnosed with a critical illness that we cover, we could pay out £25,000 or 50% of your cover amount, whichever is lowest. 

There are additional benefits included too such as Childcare Benefit and Family Accommodation Benefit. Learn more about Children's Critical Illness Cover.

Further eligibility criteria and exclusions apply, so please read the Guide to Critical Illness Cover PDF: for more information, and the Critical Illness Cover Policy Booklet PDF to see what is and isn’t covered.

Your premiums are guaranteed to stay the same unless you make any changes to your policy. Compared to some life insurance providers that offer variable premiums, Legal & General offer fixed premium life insurance policies.

You can call our claims team, Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm. The telephone number you need is 0808 303 3614. 

You can also use the same telephone number to make a claim under children’s critical illness cover or additional cover for the ‘Carcinoma in situ of the breast’ or 'low grade prostate cancer' definitions.

You can also email or write to us.

When you applied for protection, you told us how long you needed cover to last. Your policy will remain live for this length of time as long as your premiums are up to date.

The easiest way to view and manage your policy is to access My Account where you can log in or register. Or use the Policy Documents Request Form to get a policy summary by email. We can only send to the email address that we currently hold on our records. Find out more about our Privacy Policy.

You could also check your bank statements for payments to other insurance companies.

Yes, but we recommend speaking to your financial adviser before cancelling a policy. 

If you cancel your policy within the first 30 days, we’ll refund any premiums paid. After 30 days, no premiums will be refunded. We’ll require authority from each policy holder(s).

Please call us on 0330 828 3117, we're open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.
We may record and monitor calls. Call charges will vary.

Or you can cancel online.