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According to charity Mind, one in four of the UK population will be affected by some form of mental health condition in any one year.
Not only are mental health problems, unfortunately, very common in today’s society, there is also undoubtedly a stigma that surrounds this issue, and this inevitably has an impact when it comes to insurance applications made by people with a history of mental health issues.
The good news is that not every insurer thinks in the same way, and Moneysworth’s previous successes demonstrate that it is certainly possible to obtain affordable life insurance for clients who have experienced mental health difficulties. If you have been declined by one or more insurers because of your mental health history, then give Moneysworth a call today as we have frequently been successful in obtaining policies for clients who have been declined elsewhere.
Moneysworth’s highly skilled and experienced team are experts in assisting people with both mental and physical health conditions to obtain the cover that they need.
Recent examples of where we have been able to obtain cover for clients with mental health issues include:
31-year-old woman with a history of various mental health conditions:
26-year-old woman with a history of depression and other complications:
33-year-old woman who had experienced both OCD and depression:
50-year-old man with a history of depression and anxiety:
We can help you find the right insurance if you have experienced any of a number of mental health conditions, which include:
Moneysworth promise to be sensitive to your individual needs and we promise to treat you in a compassionate manner.
Standard exclusions restricting payouts for death by suicide in the first year are apparently not sufficient for many providers where there is evidence of what they see as significant mental health issues. Instead they often apply a heavy loading to the premium or refuse the application outright. This only increases the stigma that surrounds mental health in today’s society.
Also consider that, even when a mental health condition does exist, it is overwhelmingly likely that an individual’s death will be caused by a physical illness.
Although insurers are keen to point out that they offer about 80% of cases involving a mental health disclosure at standard premium rates , this provides little consolation to the other 20% that will be rated or declined.
Moneysworth are seeking to change the landscape for clients with mental health issues. In partnership with a well-known insurer, we have a new Life Cover option that has been specifically designed for people who have had a significant mental health event in the last five years. This new cover option is typically available at a more affordable price, and allows individuals to obtain life cover for death by natural causes, while the exclusion for death by suicide remains in force for longer than the usual 12 months.
It is important to note, however, that we don’t automatically send all mental health cases to this insurer. We have a whole-of-market offering and we always seek the best insurer for your individual circumstances.
Moneysworth’s highly skilled and experienced team are experts in assisting people with both mental and physical health conditions to obtain the cover that they need.
When you think of protection insurance, your first thought might be life insurance. Life cover is certainly important to make sure your family don’t lose out financially, should the worst happen.
Ideally, you should have life cover for the following eventualities:
While life insurance is undoubtedly important, don’t underestimate the importance of critical illness and income protection insurance.
Critical illness insurance provides a lump sum should you contract a serious illness, such as heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis and more advanced cancers. This lump sum can then be used to pay off your mortgage and/or to pay medical and care costs and/or to convert your home to make domestic arrangements easier while you are ill.
Another valuable feature of critical illness is that you can also cover your children, so that you receive a sum of money if one of them was diagnosed with a serious illness.
Income protection insurance pays a replacement income should you be unable to work for an extended period due to accident or sickness. Income protection can either be long-term, i.e. it will pay out until the policy ends or you go back to work; or short-term, where the length of time it pays out for is limited to perhaps one, two or five years.
These types of insurance can be of benefit to almost anybody. Anyone can contract a critical illness, and anyone can become ill and need to take time off work, indeed you probably know someone who has been forced to do this at some stage.
If you are single with no dependants, then you might also have little need for life cover, especially if you also don’t have a mortgage. Critical illness and income protection might therefore be a higher priority.
Unfortunately, serious illnesses are far from uncommon. For example, Cancer Research UK says that 1,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK every day. The British Heart Foundation claims that 260 people will need to be admitted to hospital today, as a result of a heart attack. Leading insurer LV asserts that a 30-year old man has a 21% chance of contracting a serious illness before age 70.
Life insurance policies only pay out when you die, or if a medical professional believes you have a terminal illness that will lead to death within 12 months. Cancer Research UK also says that 50% of people diagnosed with cancer live for at least 10 years. This means that people are increasingly likely to survive critical illnesses and to require medical and other assistance for several years while living with the condition.
This is a different type of insurance that normally only covers the direct costs of your treatment. You need critical illness insurance if you want to pay for longer-term care, or to modify your home, or to pay off your mortgage.
This may be true, but remember that they might need to stop work, or at least reduce their working hours, to do this, thus reducing the household income significantly. You might also need specialist nursing care that only a healthcare professional can provide, or you might want to pay for modifications to your home to help with your domestic living arrangements while you are ill. It’s also great to have the peace of mind that your mortgage will be paid off if you become critically ill.
The insurers Moneysworth typically uses all had payout rates of between 87% and 98% for critical illness insurance claims, according to their most recent annual statistics.
Large numbers of people need to take time off work due to illness, indeed you may well know someone who has had to do this recently. Government data shows that, at the time of writing, 2.5 million people of working age in the UK are on long-term sick leave.
Many employers do give you sick pay for a certain time, but how many will carry on paying you for several years? You might need to check your employee handbook very carefully. Even if you know of a colleague who was paid in full for a six-month absence, it is possible that the company did so on a discretionary basis, and that it was not contractually obliged to do so.
One of the best things about income protection policies is that they come with a range of ‘deferred periods’. The deferred period is the length of time for which you need to be off work before the policy starts to pay out. If your employer doesn’t give you any sick pay, you can select a deferred period of four weeks (usually the shortest deferred period available with this type of insurance). If your employer will give you full pay for three months, you can choose a 13-week deferred period.
At the time of writing, state support for those on sick leave is just £109.40 per week, which is clearly a very limited amount. The application process for this benefit can also be very complex.
Income protection premiums can be fairly significant, but this is because the insurer might need to keep paying a significant proportion of your salary for the rest of your working life, in the worst case scenario. Consider that, in return for your premium, you get considerable peace of mind. If affordability is an issue, we can look to arrange a cheaper short-term policy for you, where the payout period might be capped at one, two or five years.
Many insurers will still offer this cover to the self-employed. Also, if you’re thinking that you could still generate an income from the business if you were ill, consider carefully how realistic this is. If it’s a small business and you are a senior manager, it could well be the case that the business is severely affected by your absence.
The insurers Moneysworth typically uses all had payout rates of between 81% and 93% for income protection insurance claims, according to their most recent annual statistics.
Moneysworth are experts in arranging critical illness and income protection insurance. We are a whole-of-market specialist protection broker and we can search the entire marketplace to find the most suitable product and provider for your individual circumstances. Contact us today to find out more.
According to charity Mind, one in four of us every year will be affected by some form of mental health condition.
Not only are mental health problems, unfortunately, very common in today’s society, there is also undoubtedly a stigma that surrounds this issue, and this inevitably has an impact when it comes to insurance applications made by people with a history of mental health issues.
The good news is that not every insurer thinks in the same way, and Moneysworth’s previous successes demonstrate that it is certainly possible to obtain affordable life insurance if you have experienced mental health difficulties. If you have been declined by one or more insurers because of your mental health history, then give Moneysworth a call today as we have frequently been successful in obtaining policies for clients who have been declined elsewhere.
Moneysworth’s highly skilled and experienced team are experts in assisting people with both mental and physical health conditions to obtain the cover that they need.
Recent examples of where we have been able to obtain cover for clients with mental health issues include:
31-year-old woman with a history of various mental health conditions
26-year-old woman with a history of depression and other complications
33-year-old woman who had experienced both OCD and depression
50-year-old man with a history of depression and anxiety
We can help you find the right insurance if you have experienced a number of mental health conditions, which include:
Moneysworth promise to be sensitive to the individual needs of clients with mental health issues, and we promise to treat all of our clients in a compassionate manner. We allow our clients a choice of communication options and we find that many clients with mental health issues feel more comfortable doing everything via email.
We’re excited to welcome Gary Harrison in the newly-created position of National Sales and Development Manager at Moneysworth. Gary is responsible for developing business from introducers, particularly broker firms within the key sectors of protection, mortgages and wealth & pensions.
Gary has worked in the protection industry since 1989, initially as an adviser for a number of insurers such as Dunbar and GA Life, and also as a business consultant for PruProtect. Ten years ago, he was taken on by SimplyBiz as a business development manager, working with providers and advisers to develop their protection propositions.
In that role, he frequently worked closely with Moneysworth and was impressed by our passion for protection, commitment to providing value to clients and our high standards of service – all of which are important values he shares. When the opportunity came to join Moneysworth, Gary didn’t hesitate:
“It was a no-brainer, as we’re of the same opinion that firms need greater support and solutions to fulfil their clients’ protection needs in an increasingly complex protection market.”
Tim Boddy, director at Moneysworth, says:
“With the FCA’s imminent roll-out of Consumer Duty regulations, we couldn’t think of a more perfect time or fit than Gary joining our team. With his background and enthusiasm for protection, he has the ideal qualities and experience to further develop and promote the introducer service offered by Moneysworth to all advisers.”
Our specialist broker service already partners with many advisers across the UK who don’t have enough time to arrange protection themselves or to handle more complicated cases. Gary’s experience and insight in this area will ensure that we can help many more advisers at this time of exciting changes in the protection sector.
Due to the risks of Coronavirus, many insurers have made changes to their underwriting rules. These changes mean that some people may experience a greater degree of difficulty in finding cover at an acceptable price.
For example, some insurers have reduced the maximum BMI (Body Mass Index) they are prepared to accept. Also, some insurers are rejecting a higher number of cover applications involving heart conditions than they were previously.
This is because Moneysworth’s core business has always been to help people with health conditions to obtain Life Insurance, Critical Illness Cover and Income Protection Insurance.
In April alone, the Moneysworth team has been able to arrange cover for many clients who have a wide range of existing health conditions, such as:
This list shows that, despite the recent underwriting changes made by insurers, it’s still possible for people with health conditions to find the cover they need.
To maximise the chances of finding cover at an acceptable price, it’s best to use a specialist broker, such as Moneysworth, which has proven expertise in finding insurance for people with existing health conditions.
We took part in last year’s event, and we’re proud to be doing so again today!
Purple Tuesday was started by the aptly named Purple, an organisation which also offers accessibility consultancy, training and auditing services. We like what they do, and earlier this year we signed up to become a member so we can learn how to make our business more inclusive.
At Moneysworth, our mission is to improve access to Life Insurance for people who have struggled to find cover they can afford or have been refused cover, usually because they’ve been deemed a higher risk due to an existing health condition.
For most Moneysworth clients, their first engagement with us is when they use our website.
We knew our website already had features that were built with accessibility in mind, such as fairly large font sizes, touch screen compatibility and menus that could be used with just a keyboard – but is that good enough? What other improvements should we add?
How would you find your way around a website if you have visual, motor or cognitive impairments? How would you click a link, open a menu or fill in a form if you can’t operate a mouse or you have difficulty seeing and reading?
When we asked ourselves these questions, we realised we didn’t have all the answers. So we asked Purple to audit our website.
Their report identified a number of ways we could improve what is “already a good site”, and it also identified where we could make improvements to provide an easier experience for people with visual impairments or physical disabilities.
Our web designer found optimum ways to implement these changes without radically changing the design of the Moneysworth site.
Going through this process has been an interesting and revealing exercise. Now that we’ve put these improvements in place, we’ll continue to ensure we consider maximum accessibility for all users as we add new content and features to the Moneysworth website.
Before and after: some of the visual usability improvements we made to our ‘Get a Quote’ form. Better spacing, larger ‘Required’ labels, buttons and checkboxes that can be navigated and switched on/off with the keyboard, and a more prominent presentation of the options the user has selected.
