Child sickness cover

Thinking of covering children on income protection insurance may seem bizarre. No child earns an income, other than pocket money or limited part time work.

 

Insurers may consider cover to include children as part of a normal income protection policy. Insurance plans purely for a child/ children, appear from time to time but as take up of these policies is slight, they tend to disappear fast too.

 

The purpose of child cover is to cover the loss of income that a healthy parent suffers when forced to give up or drastically reduce the hours of paid work, as a result of their child being diagnosed with a critical or terminal illness. One solution is a monthly income, often limited to a small amount such as £5,000 a year and for a maximum of five years.

 

Insurers do not volunteer whether or not they will offer child cover; all you can do is ask. Many have a complete ban on cover, others will consider individual; requests on their merits.

 

Another solution is a ' Carer Cover " benefit which pays a cash lump sum equal to four times the adult monthly income protection benefit 

 

Another alternative, if you have a large family and/or limited budget, is to take out a critical illness policy, which includes children.