Life insurance with HIV

Yes. People living with HIV can take out life insurance in the UK. Access to cover has improved in recent years, as many insurers now recognise that many have a normal life expectancy.

Before HAART (highly active antiretroviral treatment), HIV was fatal. Treatment isn't a cure, but it's effective at preventing progression to AIDS, now often called late-stage or advanced HIV. In the UK, most people being treated don't develop AIDS, and most can live a long and healthy life.

Insurers changed their view too. In 2015, a group of insurers and reinsurers across the Association of British Insurers (ABI) reviewed its HIV statement. They agreed unanimously that HIV is now treated like any other pre-existing medical condition.

The ABI's guiding principles are voluntary and set out industry good practice. Under them, insurers assess each application case by case, based solely on the best available relevant evidence.

What you're offered still depends on your health. Your viral load, CD4 count and any other pre-existing conditions may affect the cover, the premiums, the policy length and the payout.

Finding cover hasn't always been easy. In 2017 research by the National AIDS Trust (NAT), one in four people living with HIV (25%) had been refused a financial product or quoted an unaffordable premium in the previous five years.

In the same research, only 28% knew where to look for HIV-inclusive insurance products. Negative experiences had led three in five (60%) to avoid applying for financial products because of their HIV status.

Insurers ask you and your GP about your HIV status. Expect questions on your treatment, CD4 count and viral load too.

The health questions name HIV directly. Guardian and Octopus Legacy ask whether you've had a positive test for HIV or hepatitis B or C, or are waiting for a result. Octopus Legacy also asks whether you've been advised to have one.

If you answer yes, the follow-up questions cover your care and your results:

• When you were diagnosed or found to be positive (at The Exeter), and whether you're on HAART and since when (at Guardian).
• Your current or latest CD4 count and viral load, and when you last had an HIV check-up with a doctor (at Guardian).
• What medication you take, any other health conditions, and whether you've had symptoms now or in the past.
• Whether you've had any HIV-related complications (at Guardian) or opportunistic infections and their dates (at The Exeter).
• Whether you've ever used drugs. Many insurers ask this, while some ask only about the past five or ten years.

For its Real Life policy, The Exeter asks you to supply these details as your latest HIV clinic results. Insurers also ask your GP for written statements about your health. Guardian may need medical evidence, usually a specialist GP report.

If the team at your HIV clinic sees you more regularly, aidsmap suggests asking your GP to contact the clinic too. It also says to check that what your healthcare providers send is accurate.

You have rights over that report. Under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, the insurer must tell you and get your consent before it asks your doctor for one. You can see the report and ask the doctor to amend anything you think is incorrect or misleading.

How you apply can matter. Legal & General considers customers who tell it they're HIV positive, but only on its interactive applications. Apply any other way and it declines HIV positive applicants at the point of sale. It also declines customers with late-stage HIV.

Allow time for the medical evidence. The application takes one to two months on average, and anywhere from three weeks to three months. That mostly depends on how quickly your GP and specialists return documents.

More time on treatment and better results mean a smaller extra premium in Guardian's examples. At The Exeter, some applicants may get standard rates.

Insurers look at the two results used to monitor HIV. Your CD4 count shows the extent of damage to your immune system. Your viral load shows how much virus is in your blood.

Treatment is antiretroviral tablets taken every day. The aim is an undetectable viral load: so little HIV in your blood that it can no longer be measured. In the UK that usually means below 20 copies per millilitre, and on daily medicines it usually takes around six months to get there.

Treatment works for most people. In England in 2024, UKHSA provisionally estimates that 98% of adults on HIV treatment had a suppressed viral load. Over half of the 103,689 people accessing HIV care that year were aged 50 or over.

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

95%

99%

98%

Diagnosed Diagnosed and on treatment On treatment, virally suppressed

HIV diagnosis, treatment and viral suppression in England, 2024

	Adults, England, 2024
Diagnosed	95%
Diagnosed and on treatment	99%
On treatment, virally suppressed	98%

UKHSA provisional estimates, published in its 2025 HIV report.

Where an insurer charges more, it adds a rating (an extra mortality loading). That's a percentage on top of the standard premium: +50% means you pay one and a half times the standard price.

At The Exeter, some well-treated, well-controlled Real Life applicants with an undetectable viral load and a high CD4 count may be offered standard rates. Others get a mild rating of 50% to 75% extra. The Exeter can't offer terms if you have AIDS.

Guardian can usually quote term life insurance for HIV positive people aged 18 to 64. HAART must have started more than a year ago, and your viral load and CD4 count must be satisfactory. A term of up to 30 years is usually acceptable, and cover must end by age 80.

Standard premiums depend on your age, so an older applicant starts from a higher base price before any loading is added. Guardian's examples show how time on HAART and CD4 count change its ratings:

Individual critical illness cover is hard to get with HIV. Income protection is possible with some insurers, and you might get both through an employer.

In general, people diagnosed with HIV won't be eligible for most individual critical illness policies. Guardian doesn't offer critical illness cover to HIV positive applicants. Some policies accept anyone who applies, but most policies won't pay out if a pre-existing condition contributes to the illness.

Most policies don't pay out for an HIV diagnosis itself; our guide to critical illness cover conditions explains how the definitions work. Some cover HIV caught in particular ways. Vitality's plan, for example, has an Accidental HIV category: infection from a blood transfusion given as medical treatment, a physical or sexual assault, an incident during your normal work duties or an organ transplant.

If you took out cover before your diagnosis

A life policy taken out before an HIV diagnosis usually stays valid. In most circumstances, insurers pay out if you pass away from an HIV-related illness. A new policy may be harder to get after a recent diagnosis, so aidsmap suggests speaking to a specialist adviser before you cancel existing cover.

If you bought critical illness cover before your diagnosis, check the policy wording. In many cases you stay covered as long as you keep paying the premiums.

Until May 2018, ABI guidance allowed an HIV claim only if HIV came from a blood transfusion, a physical assault or work in an eligible occupation. The 2018 guide removed this, and NAT says people who get HIV after buying cover should be able to claim for any other illness listed in their policy.

Income protection and cover through work

In general, people diagnosed with HIV aren't eligible for most individual income protection policies. Some short-term policies are available through specialist brokers, at a higher cost. They usually exclude HIV-related claims for the first year or two.

Both Guardian and The Exeter can consider individual income protection:

Cover through an employer or trade union is another route. Some employers and trade unions offer group life insurance. Having HIV doesn't exclude you from most employer group critical illness or income protection schemes.

• Death in service benefit: life cover through your employer
• Income protection vs critical illness cover
• Business life insurance: cover a business arranges for its people
• Standalone critical illness cover

Sometimes, if you apply for a large amount of cover or have recently lived in or visited certain countries.

Legal & General asks for an HIV test if you're under 60 and apply for £1,500,001 or more of life cover in total. It also asks anyone who has lived in or visited a non-UK country with high HIV prevalence (where HIV is common) in the last five years.

Guardian asks whether you've lived in Africa, Thailand, Russia, Ukraine or the Caribbean for more than three months in the last two years. If you answer yes, it requests an HIV test for life cover.

Legal & General follows the ABI's voluntary guiding principles. Under them, a request for an HIV test needs a clear, evidence-based reason that can be explained to you, and an insurer won't insist you're tested. Legal & General can't offer cover, though, if you refuse a test it has asked for.

If you're tested, the insurer should tell you about counselling linked to the test. If the result is positive, it contacts the doctor you named beforehand. Results are shared with anyone else only with your explicit consent, and insurers won't use information you reveal by accident.

Worried about a past negative test? Legal & General's application asks whether you've ever tested positive for HIV or are waiting for a result, and doesn't ask about negative tests. Insurers don't routinely tell applicants about a negative result, but they send a copy if you ask.

Questions about sexual health are allowed within limits. Industry guidelines let insurers ask about your HIV status and any sexually transmitted infection in the last five years. They can also ask about living or travelling abroad, blood transfusions or surgery abroad, and injecting drugs.

You shouldn't be asked how you got HIV or about your sexuality. Under the ABI's voluntary principles, insurers don't ask for information that's irrelevant to the risk, such as speculative questions based on assumptions.

In England, Wales and Scotland, the Equality Act 2010 counts HIV as a disability. Insurers must base their decisions on relevant, reliable information, not stereotypes.

You meet that definition from the day you're diagnosed, as people with cancer or multiple sclerosis do. The Act doesn't apply in Northern Ireland. See life insurance if you are disabled for how disability protection works.

The Act still lets insurers take HIV and other health information into account. They can treat you differently if they rely on information that's relevant to the risk and from a reliable source, and if doing so is reasonable. That can be actuarial or statistical data or a medical report, never untested assumptions, stereotypes or generalisations.

aidsmap says a blanket policy of refusing cover to people living with HIV, or offering it only on certain terms, would be unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act. You can challenge an insurer if you think its risk assessment isn't based on reliable, relevant evidence.

Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, you must take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation (give incomplete or misleading information). Whether you took reasonable care depends partly on how clear and specific the insurer's questions were. Terrence Higgins Trust warns that if you lie about your HIV status, the policy won't pay out.

If a misrepresentation is deliberate or reckless, the insurer can cancel the policy from the start, refuse all claims and keep the premiums. If it's careless and the insurer wouldn't have offered cover at all, it can cancel and refuse claims but must return the premiums. If it would only have charged more, it can reduce the payout in proportion (why life insurance might not pay out has more).

If an insurer refuses you life, critical illness or income protection cover because of HIV, it must refer you to another provider or a signposting service. That's under a voluntary agreement between the government, the ABI and the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA). You can also ask why you were turned down, and ask for the evidence to be reviewed or updated if you think there's a mistake.

To complain, aidsmap suggests raising it informally with the insurer first (or asking your broker to), then using the insurer's formal complaints procedure. If you're still unhappy, or you haven't had a final response within eight weeks, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to investigate. It's free.

Start with your latest clinic results and an honest, complete application.

1. Have your clinic results ready Insurers ask about your treatment and when it started, your last check-up, and your latest CD4 count and viral load. The Exeter asks for these as your latest HIV clinic results.
2. Answer every question honestly Give complete, accurate answers on the application. If you don't answer truthfully or leave something out, the insurer might not pay out.
3. Involve your HIV clinic Insurers ask your GP for written statements. If your HIV clinic sees you more regularly, aidsmap suggests asking your GP to contact the clinic too.
4. Check the medical report You have the right to see a report your doctor writes for the insurer and to ask the doctor to amend anything you consider incorrect or misleading.
5. Compare more than one insurer Each insurer underwrites differently. aidsmap says specialist brokers and advisers who work with health conditions could make applying easier. Check how you apply too: Legal & General only considers HIV positive applicants on its interactive applications.
6. Keep cover you already have A policy taken out before your diagnosis usually stays valid, and a new policy may be harder to get after a recent diagnosis. aidsmap suggests speaking to a specialist adviser before cancelling.
7. Check other routes if you're refused or aged 50–85 Ask the insurer why you were turned down, and check for cover through work. If you're aged 50–85, guaranteed over 50s life insurance plans don't ask about your health.

Guaranteed over 50s plans (for ages 50–85) have limits. They typically pay full cover only after an initial moratorium (a waiting period at the start), for example 12 months at Aviva and one year at Legal & General. MoneyHelper warns that you might pay in more over time than your family gets back.

• Guaranteed life insurance (ages 50–85): over 50s cover that doesn't ask about your health, and its limits
• High risk life insurance: applying when an insurer sees a higher risk
• Over 50 life insurance