Best critical illness cover: how to compare policies

Critical illness policies cover a wide range of illnesses, conditions and situations, and definitions and exclusions can vary between insurers. MoneyHelper says that’s why it’s important to compare what different insurers can offer you.

Of the six providers in this guide, Aviva, Legal & General, Vitality and Zurich each have at least one critical illness product rated 5 stars by Defaqto. Which one suits you depends on the conditions you care about and the amount and term you have in mind.

When you compare policies, look at:

• The conditions covered and how each is defined. Every policy covers cancer, heart attack and stroke to at least the ABI’s model wordings, and many insurers go further.
• Smaller payments for less serious illnesses, such as 25% or 50% of your lump sum, and whether your children are covered.
• Claims paid, and what each insurer’s percentage counts.
• How the cover is set up: on its own or combined with life insurance.

Comparing quotes for the same amount of cover and the same term keeps them like for like.

The most comprehensive policies cover 50 or more conditions, while others are much more limited. Vitality’s website, citing Defaqto (2026), puts the average at 75 conditions.

Under the ABI’s Guide to Minimum Standards for Critical Illness Cover, every policy must cover cancer, heart attack and stroke. Following the guide is a condition of ABI membership for member insurers that sell this cover.

Beyond those three core illnesses, insurers can include some, all or none of the ABI’s other model conditions, or add their own. Where an insurer covers a condition with an ABI model wording, it must use that wording and can’t make it less generous.

How conditions are defined

A policy pays out when your diagnosis meets the wording in its terms. Citizens Advice says that for the illnesses covered, you usually have to be extremely ill or totally disabled before you can claim.

MoneyHelper suggests checking how severely ill or disabled you need to be, and checking the cover for different types of cancer. Some policies won’t pay out for the early stages of common cancers.

• Cancer: the ABI wording is “cancer – excluding less advanced cases”. It doesn’t cover cancers classed as pre-malignant, in situ (not spread into nearby tissue), of borderline malignancy or of low malignant potential.
• Heart attack: the ABI wording requires a definite diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction with death of heart muscle. Myocardial injury or angina without a myocardial infarction isn’t covered.
• Stroke: the ABI wording requires permanent neurological deficit (lasting damage to how the brain works) with persisting clinical symptoms. A transient ischaemic attack (TIA, or mini-stroke), traumatic brain injury or eye stroke isn’t covered.

Check the survival period (how long you must survive after diagnosis to qualify for a benefit). It’s 10 days on Aviva’s Critical Illness Plan and under Zurich’s Personal Protection terms, and 14 days on Legal & General’s Critical Illness Cover.

Check too whether the policy covers severe or permanent disabilities from injury or illness. Total and permanent disability (TPD) cover is usually part of critical illness insurance, as extra cover for illnesses that aren’t specifically listed. See our guide to critical illness cover conditions for full definitions.

Some policies make a smaller payment for less severe conditions. Under the ABI’s definitions, an additional payment leaves your remaining benefit unchanged, while a partial payment reduces the cover you have left.

MoneyHelper suggests checking whether a policy pays 25% or 50% of your lump sum for less serious illnesses. The table shows how six providers do it.

Some policies also pay out before treatment, once you’re placed on an NHS waiting list. Through advisers, Zurich’s Critical Illness covers 7 advanced payment conditions (10 on Enhanced and Enhanced Plus), while Vitality’s Waiting List Benefit covers 24 surgical conditions.

Some policies pay a smaller amount if one of your children has a covered condition. Children’s cover comes as standard at Aviva, Legal & General, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, while Vitality offers it as an option and Zurich at extra cost.

Under the ABI’s model exclusions for children’s cover, a claim isn’t paid if the condition was present at birth or symptoms began before the child was covered. It also won’t pay if your child passes away within 28 days of meeting the definition.

Extra benefits and support services

Policies also include extra benefits and wellbeing services. Some are part of the policy terms. Others, such as Aviva DigiCare+ and Zurich Support Services, aren’t part of the contract and can be withdrawn.

• Critical Illness Plan customers at Aviva, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland get the Aviva DigiCare+ app, with 24/7 access to unlimited private GP appointments (subject to fair usage). Aviva says these services are non-contractual and can be changed or withdrawn at any time.
• Legal & General’s Critical Illness Cover includes an Accident Hospitalisation Benefit. It pays £5,000 if you’re in hospital with physical injuries for at least 28 days in a row, straight after an accident.
• Legal & General’s Childcare Benefit pays up to £1,000 towards a registered childminder after a critical illness claim if you have a child under 5. Its Child Funeral Benefit gives £4,000 towards a covered child’s funeral.
• Legal & General’s cover also comes with Care Concierge, for help with adult care, and Wellbeing Support from RedArc’s registered nurses. You don’t need to make a claim to use Wellbeing Support.
• Vitality’s Serious Illness Cover automatically includes complications of pregnancy. It pays £5,000 if you or your spouse have one.
• Zurich Support Services comes with all Zurich’s critical illness policies and includes up to 6 sessions of short-term counselling. It isn’t part of the contract and can be withdrawn without notice.

In 2025, insurers paid 90.2% of new critical illness claims across individual and group policies. According to ABI and GRiD data, that covered 20,498 claims worth £1,422 million in total, with an average payout of £69,375.

On individual policies alone, claims totalled £1.25 billion in 2025, with an average payout of £67,000. Cancer accounted for 65% of individual claims.

These figures aren’t like for like. Aviva’s 90.7% (also shown for NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, which Aviva underwrites) includes children’s and TPD claims, while Legal & General reports children’s claims separately.

In its 2024 figures, the ABI said common reasons for declined claims were not disclosing existing medical conditions and not meeting policy definitions. Our guide to critical illness payout rates goes into more detail. The critical illness cover page has more insurers’ figures.

Defaqto (a firm that researches financial products) scores products from 1 to 5 stars based on their features and benefits. Defaqto says it analyses over 3.5 million features and calls its ratings an unbiased assessment of quality.

Defaqto rates individual products, not insurers, in separate critical illness categories: standalone, direct standalone, level term and decreasing, and direct with life cover. The same policy can hold a different rating in each one.

For example, Aviva’s Critical Illness Plan (decreasing) has 4 stars as direct standalone and 3 stars as standalone. Zurich’s Life Protection has 5 stars as direct with life cover and 3 stars as level term.

So check which product and category a rating is for. A 5-star rating for a policy sold through advisers tells you nothing about the one the insurer sells directly, or the other way round.

Defaqto says its ratings give an objective review based on fact, rather than opinion, while customer reviews are based on one person’s experience.

You can take out critical illness cover as a stand-alone product or as part of another insurance policy. MoneyHelper says it’s often combined with life insurance.

• Combined (accelerated) cover: one policy combines life cover and critical illness cover, paying out on the first event: death or the diagnosis of a critical illness.
• Separate policy alongside life cover: some providers let you add critical illness cover to a life quote, but issue it as a separate policy. At NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, that Critical Illness Plan has no death benefit.
• Standalone cover: critical illness cover bought on its own, without a life policy. The FCA defines it as a policy paying a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a prescribed (non-fatal) serious illness or medical condition.

A combined policy ends once it pays out on the first event. If a policy has terminal illness benefit as well as critical illness cover, it can’t pay both lump sums. Once one is paid, the policy ends.

See standalone critical illness cover for more on buying cover on its own, and best life insurance to compare the life cover side. You can also estimate a cover amount with our critical illness calculator.

This guide compares six providers: Aviva, Legal & General, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Vitality and Zurich. NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland distribute Aviva’s Critical Illness Plan, which Aviva provides, administers and underwrites.

• Aviva critical illness cover: the Critical Illness Plan, and Critical Illness+ and Life Insurance+ through advisers
• Legal & General critical illness cover: Critical Illness Cover, added to life insurance
• NatWest critical illness cover: Aviva’s Critical Illness Plan, bought with life insurance
• Royal Bank of Scotland critical illness cover: Aviva’s Critical Illness Plan, bought with life insurance
• Vitality Serious Illness Cover: severity-based cover in three versions
• Zurich critical illness cover: Life Protection online, Personal Protection through advisers

The critical illness cover page lists more insurers’ policies and claims figures, and every insurer review is in our company index.

Check what each policy covers alongside the price, and make sure you understand any changes before switching an existing policy. MoneyHelper says the best way to get the cover you need is advice from an independent financial adviser or specialist broker.

1. Compare definitions, exclusions and survival periods Check how each insurer defines cancer, heart attack, stroke and total permanent disability, and what it excludes. Check the survival period too: it’s 10 days on Aviva’s direct plan and Zurich’s Personal Protection, and 14 days at Legal & General.
2. Check smaller payments and children’s cover See whether the policy pays 25% or 50% of your lump sum for less serious illnesses, and whether a claim reduces your main cover. If you have children, check whether children’s cover is included as standard or costs extra.
3. Get quotes through a broker, adviser or direct An independent financial adviser or specialist broker can take you through the details of the policies available. MoneyHelper says they might charge a fee or be paid commission by insurers. You can also get quotes direct from insurers. Not all of them sell through comparison sites.
4. Answer health questions truthfully If you don’t answer truthfully or accurately on your application, or leave something out, your claim might be rejected. After buying a policy, you have 30 days to change your mind and get a full refund.
5. Check the conditions and price before switching MoneyHelper says it’s always worth looking around for a better deal while you’re in good health, by switching provider or changing policy with your current insurer. Make sure you understand any changes in the conditions covered, and remember you can’t change your mind once you’ve cancelled a policy. Even with a better deal, you might pay a little more because you’re older than when you bought your first policy.