16 PROTECTION TOMORROW
Most parents do everything in their power to protect their children and put their children ’ s needs before their own . No doubt you ’ d think our industry would be all over this .
Jacqui Gillies
Marketing and Proposition Director
Guardian
But it ’ s not . Children ’ s critical illness cover , while offered by many providers , is the conversation that often gets lost . It ’ s the afterthought . This is largely because of proposition design . Children ’ s cover is usually built into adult critical illness cover only , so an adviser can only discuss it if the parent takes out critical illness cover for themselves . This means many children and their families are missing out on valuable cover . At Guardian , we think they deserve better . Children deserve their needs to be given the same weight in the protection conversation .
Let ’ s look at why . The impact of a child ’ s critical illness on a family is devastating . Take cancer – the big reason children need cover . According to children ’ s cancer charity CLIC Sargent , around 4,500 under-25s are diagnosed with cancer each year . Which is 12 families every day [ 1 ] .
When a family receives that diagnosis , is it realistic to think they can carry on as normal with their daily lives ? The charity found 42 % of parents had to stop work because of their child ’ s cancer treatment .
19 % of parents took unpaid leave for over a year , and 49 % of parents experienced a loss of earnings [ 2 ] .
A child ’ s serious illness is going to have a huge impact on family finances and should be a crucial part of any protection conversation . So , what ’ s stopping us talking about it ? In my view , proposition design plays a big part . The typical design doesn ’ t lead to the right level of take-up or outcomes . A number of things need to change .
Number 1
We need to look at access to children ’ s cover . Most providers automatically include children ’ s critical illness cover with adult critical illness policies only . This means if a customer just wants life cover , or if they can ’ t afford or aren ’ t eligible for their own critical illness cover , then they can ’ t get children ’ s cover . That wipes out a huge segment ; families who are missing out on the ability to protect their children .
Children ’ s critical illness cover should be an optional extra . It should be possible to add it to any adult policy , either life or critical illness , at any time . When you consider the size of the life cover market compared