Partial payments on critical illness (CI) protection plans serve a valuable need for policyholders particularly as many conditions such as cancer are being found earlier.
Hannah Cook, head of protection business development at Scor Global Life UK, explained the payments helped those who have “been through something pretty impactful” but also keep the product affordable.
Speaking at the Scottish Widows Dr Marius Barnard Recognition Event, Cook said: “We are finding cancers earlier and of course, we all know that the earlier we find cancers, the more successful we will be at treating them.
“For me, the really key thing is that we keep taking ourselves back to what is the customer need in that moment? What do they need when they have that diagnosis?
“If you look at the history the critical illness product, this is where partial payments came from; that we were seeing claims that were a near miss.
“They didn’t quite meet the definition, but you could see the claimant had been through something pretty impactful in their lives and they needed some sort of financial benefit.”
Maintain affordability
Cook (pictured centre left) added that along with helping customers in difficult situations, partial payouts also help keep the product affordable and sustainable.
“We need to keep going back to what is the customer need and making sure that we’re pricing that appropriately because these products are so important for people,” she continued.
“And we need to make sure that they are available to as many people as possible and that’s about keeping the price under control.
“If we were to pay a full payout on every basal cell carcinoma nobody would be able to afford the product,” Cook concluded.
