Life Cover - Protect your family

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Affordable peace of mind

Our life insurance can help protect your family's future and lifestyle if you pass away. It doesn’t need to be expensive, pay an amount that’s affordable to you and they can get a cash sum when you’re gone.

Our life insurance gives you reassurance for life's biggest chapters. Moments like buying a home, starting a family and watching your children go to university. It can help cover the costs if you're no longer around.

Whatever you need, it's easy to get the right cover and costs less than you may think.

With Post Office Life Insurance:

You can get, depending on your age, up to £750,000 cover if you die or are diagnosed with a terminal illness **
Option to add Critical Illness Cover to your policy, at additional cost; helps pay a lump sum if you suffer from a critical illness, providing extra financial support while you're recovering.
Option to add Children's Cover to your policy, at additional cost; designed to help cover extra cost like medical expenses if your insured child suffers accidental death or specified serious injury or illness

Plus, if you’re covered, we'll help make it easy on your family when that difficult time comes, with access to bereavement support at no extra cost.

If you believe you need life insurance, then consider a policy from the Post Office today.

Life insurance

How much cover do you need?

That depends on who you want to protect, for what and for how long.

You may want to give your partner a cash sum after you're gone. Or look after your children until they're old enough to look after themselves. That could be 18, 21 or older – and can cost tens of thousands of pounds (CPAG, Cost of a Child Report, 2020). Updated version of this report is available at https://cpag.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/report/cost-child-2020. There are three types of cover to choose from that support different needs.

Get the right cover for your family

Choose from three different Life Insurance policies to give your family the protection they need:

Decreasing Cover – the cash sum reduces each month, in line with how the balance decreases of a loan or a capital and interest repayment mortgage with an interest rate of 8%.
Level Cover – pays out a fixed sum if you die during the term of the policy
Increasing Cover – what you pay and the cash sum increase each year to reduce the impact of inflation

Compare life insurance

Help protect your family’s needs with Critical Illness Cover option and Children’s Cover option

Would your family be financially secure if you suffered a critical illness? Criticial Illness Cover can be added (at additional cost) when applying for Post Office Life Insurance. It pays a cash sum if you suffer from cancer; excluding less advanced cases, heart attack; of specified severity, stroke; resulting in permanent symptoms or coronary by-pass grafts; with a surgery to divide the breastbone. At such a difficult time, it can ease financial pressure on you, your family or your partner - like helping for a mortgage, rent, everyday living costs, even modifications needed to your home as a result of your illness.

Children’s Cover is also an optional extra to cover your little ones, by choosing to add children's cover to your Post Office Life Insurance policy, for a little extra each month, you'll get a one-off lump sum payment if any of your insured children suffer an accidental death or are diagnosed with a serious injury or illness, to help support you and your family at a difficult time. It's designed to (that meets our definitions) help cover extra costs that may be incurred for things like medical expenses, taking time off to attend hospital appointments and arranging childcare or making adaptations to your home.

Don’t forget inflation

When you take out life insurance, consider taking an increasing or index-linked policy, to help offset the effects of inflation on the value of the payout. For example, £100,000 today won't be worth £100,000 in 20 years’ time. The Bank of England has a handy tool that shows the impact of inflation over time.

See our range of life cover to help you protect what matters most

Life cover options

Some common questions

It's a way to give you some reassurance and your loved ones some extra financial security if you die. It can also provide some financial comfort at a difficult time if you're diagnosed with a terminal illness that meets our definition as per the Terms and Conditions.

It's not all that different from other types of insurance. If you insure a car or a house, you pay an agreed amount or 'premium' each month. The insurance company pays if it gets stolen, damaged or destroyed.

With life insurance, the insurer pays out if you die within the term of the policy. You won’t be around to receive the money yourself, but you'll be able to leave it to your family or loved ones.

It also includes a terminal illness benefit. So, if you're diagnosed with a terminal illness, that meets the definition, we'll pay the sum assured early, which could remove financial worries at a difficult time.
Post Office Life Insurance is a life assurance policy that pays an amount of money (cash sum) if, during your chosen policy term, you die or are diagnosed with a terminal illness that meets the definition, as per the Terms and Conditions.

If we pay your cash sum your policy will end. If you're still alive at the end of your policy term and haven't been diagnosed with a terminal illness, your policy will end and you won't receive a pay-out.
We can provide life insurance for up to £750,000**, depending on your age at the time of application. You just need to decide how much cover you want or can afford each month.

Do some calculations or get someone to help you. If you have a mortgage, think about what's left to pay. Then consider all the day-to-day living costs and other one-off costs your family might face over the time period they'd normally depend on you for.

Be realistic. Include rent, utility bills, education costs, birthdays, weddings and holidays. These costs can add up.

The Money Advice Service has lots of calculator tools that can help.
Even if you don't have a mortgage, life insurance could help your family cover the cost of everyday living and maintain their lifestyle. Things like rent, private or university education costs, birthdays, weddings. Even domestic tasks if whoever's left behind works and has to pay someone to do them after you're gone.
It pays a cash sum if you suffer from cancer; excluding less advanced cases, heart attack; of specified severity, stroke; resulting in permanent symptoms or coronary by-pass grafts; with a surgery to divide the breastbone. At such a difficult time, it can ease financial pressure on you, your family or your partner - like helping for a mortgage, rent, everyday living costs, even modifications needed to your home as a result of your illness.

Find out more about our critical illness cover
It's an optional extra to cover your little ones, by choosing to add children's cover to your Post Office Life Insurance policy, for a little extra each month, you'll get a one-off lump sum payment if any of your insured children suffer an accidental death or are diagnosed with a serious injury or illness, to help support you and your family at a difficult time. It's designed to help cover extra costs that may be incurred for things like medical expenses, taking time off to attend hospital appointments and arranging childcare or making adaptations to your home, if your insured child suffers a specified injury or illness that meets our definitions.

Find out more about our children's cover

Still have questions about life insurance? Visit our help page

Things you need to know

** Your cash sum is dependent on the monthly premium you choose to pay, as well as your age, smoker status, length and type of cover and your personal circumstances at the time you apply. Post Office Life Insurance offers up to £750,000 cover, depending on your age, for customers who are UK residents aged 18-70 at the start of the policy. Cover is subject to acceptance and is not guaranteed. The minimum term is 5 years and cover must end before your 90th birthday. We won’t pay a claim on death if it was as a result of suicide or intentional self-inflicted injury within 12 months of the start date of your policy. Critical Illness Cover can pay an extra cash sum if you are diagnosed, during the term of your policy, with one of the four critical illnesses covered that meets our definition.

We won’t pay a claim on terminal illness if you don’t meet our definition of terminal illness; or terminal illness is caused by intentional self-inflicted injury within 12 months of the start date of your policy. The full definition of terminal illness can be found in the Terms and Conditions.

We won’t pay a claim if you don’t keep your payments up to date as you will no longer be covered under the policy. If you don’t tell us something or give us incorrect answers to our application questions that affects your cover, we may reduce the amount we pay for a claim or at worst cancel your cover and not refund your monthly payments. If you’re a UK resident aged between 18 and 70, you can apply for cover. Please see Terms and Conditions for further details about the restrictions that apply.

Post Office Life Insurance is underwritten and administered by Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited. Neilson Financial Services Limited assist in the administration. If you buy Post Office Life Insurance over the telephone, it is arranged and sold by Post Office Limited and Post Office Management Services Limited. If you buy Post Office Life Insurance online, it is arranged and sold by Neilson Financial Services Limited, following an introduction by Post Office Limited.