Aviva is including six types of pregnancy complications and increasing the number of child-specific illnesses eligible for claim as part of changes to its individual critical illness cover.
The insurer said the changes represented the first step of bringing elements of the AIG Life UK proposition to Aviva since completing the acquisition of its rival provider in April.
At the time, protection advisers told Health & Protection that they hoped Aviva would retain “unique” aspects of AIG UK’s offering including cover for pregnancy complications.
However, CIExpert noted that most of the additions were only being applied to the enhanced version of the product.
Pregnancy benefit and child illnesses
Aviva noted its new pregnancy benefit pays out £5,000 per affected pregnancy per policy, on both parents’ critical illness policies.
Under the upgraded children’s benefit, Aviva is adding in four new conditions that would receive a pay out of £25,000. The conditions are Craniosynostosis, Edwards Syndrome, Osteogenesis Imperfecta and Patau Syndrome.
The upgraded CI cover also includes more conditions including child-specific illnesses.
It provides fixed cover amounts of £25,000 or £50,000 for 11 higher impact illnesses, regardless of the adult’s cover level, covers children from birth up to age 22, and pays out per child per policy.
Aviva pointed out its payments for Craniosynostosis and Osteogenesis Imperfecta may help parents make any changes to their home to support their child’s needs.
With Edwards syndrome and Patau Syndrome, the payment aims to help to alleviate any financial pressures for the parent to spend valuable time with their child.
Aviva is also increasing the amount paid under child death benefit to £10,000. Over a fifth (22.9%) of child critical illness claims were for child death benefit during 2023, it said.
Project Teddy
In 2023, Aviva paid more than £5.9m for 283 children’s critical illness claims, with an average claim amount of £20,926.
The most common reason for claims was cancer, accounting for 30.6% of cases.
Aviva also pointed out that through Project Teddy its claims team support any families undergoing child critical illness claims and learn about each child and their siblings in order to send appropriate gifts and toys.
Fran Bruce, managing director of protection at Aviva, (pictured) said: “These changes not only represent a valuable addition to the cover we offer our customers and their children, but it is also an important first step in bringing the propositions of Aviva and AIG Life UK closer together.”
Uniformly positive
Providing his verdict on the changes, Alan Lakey, director at CIExpert, said: “Children’s critical illness has been the new battlefield in recent years and fresh from the absorption of AIG, Aviva has included these various congenital conditions which are generally discovered at birth or during the pregnancy.
“While not having a substantial impact the changes are uniformly positive and will prove beneficial to the parents of claimants.
“It’s worth noting that the coverage of these conditions are, in common with most policies in the market, only available where the enhanced versions of the policy are selected.
“Again, as we highlighted within our Single is Best campaign document the importance of early child cover and pregnancy complications is a factor that can easily be overlooked when selecting a joint policy with a focus on just covering repayment of the mortgage.
“If the budget is tight then the enhanced policy can be selected for just one partner but if two individual policies are selected then the pay-out level for these conditions is effectively doubled.
“It goes without saying that the impact of these conditions for either child or mother can have a huge impact on the family.”