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Cancer is increasingly something people live with, not just something they survive. That changes the shape of financial risk, and it changes what good advice needs to cover.
Modelling from Scottish Widows and Macmillan projects UK cancer prevalence could rise by 58% between 2025 and 2045, reaching around 5.4 million people living with and beyond cancer, up from 3.4 million today.1
What is important is that we reflect reality to help customers protect the plans they are building.
There is a reason this matters for protection specifically.
Critical illness cover was created for what comes after diagnosis, when someone is still alive and working out what happens next. As survivorship improves, more clients may need financial breathing space for longer.
Cancer prevalence in the UK is set to soar by 58% from 2025 to 2045, reaching 5.4 million people, up from 3.4 million today.1
Prevalence tells a different story from incidence
Incidence counts new diagnoses within a given period. Prevalence looks at how many people are living today who have had a cancer diagnosis at any point, whether that was recent or years ago.
For advice, that distinction matters because prevalence captures the longer financial ripple effects that can sit alongside treatment, time away from work, recovery, and rebuilding stability.
The modelling also helps explain why prevalence rises.
Across all cancers, the projected increase by 2045 is driven by a combination of population growth and ageing (49%), incidence trends (36%), and improving survival rates (14%).1
Improving survival is a success story for medicine, but it also means more people living for longer with practical realities that can change finances: ongoing treatment, altered capacity, workplace adjustments, and the need to recover in stages.
This also is not only a 2045 story. Another indicator is five-year prevalence, meaning people diagnosed within the last five years.
The projections suggest five-year prevalence for all cancers combined could increase by 50% over the next 20 years, reaching over two million people by 2045.1
The UK-wide picture that supports earlier conversations
Prevalence is projected to rise in every UK nation.
By 2045, around 7% to 8% of the population in each home nation is projected to be living with and beyond cancer, compared with around 5% today.
In absolute terms, the modelling points to around 4.6 million people in England, 448,000 in Scotland, 236,000 in Wales, and 146,000 in Northern Ireland living with and beyond cancer by 2045.1
For advisers, these figures support earlier conversations about resilience.
Cancer is increasingly part of working life, family life, and financial planning. Raising income resilience and “what happens if” planning does not need to feel like a sales tactic.
Done well, it is simply reflecting what many households are already seeing around them.
Where claims evidence helps
When clients think about protection, they often want reassurance about one thing: will it work when it matters?
That is why claims confidence should be part of the conversation, not an afterthought. The aim is to offer grounded reassurance that valid claims are expected and the process is designed to work.
In our claims reporting, cancer is also the leading driver of critical illness claims, which is why prevalence insight belongs in mainstream advice conversations.
What our 2025 claims data shows
Headline outcomes
- We paid around £127m in life claims and £92m in critical illness claims in 2025.
- 99% of life claims and 91.9% of critical illness claims were paid.
- Total paid to customers: £219m, supporting 10,967 families.
What is driving critical illness claims
- Cancer is the leading driver of critical illness claims, and in our reporting, it accounts for 67% of critical illness claims.
- Top cancer claim types: breast, bowel, prostate, malignant melanoma, Hodgkins/lymphoma.
These statistics can be used to reassure clients that valid claims are expected.
For our full 2025 claims statistics you can download our 2025 claims report.
Turning insight into advice that feels practical
Clients often imagine a single setback, but real life can involve several financial challenges: treatment, recovery, possible relapses, and longer-term changes.
Good advice helps clients separate the immediate shock from the longer recovery, then plan for both.
Critical illness cover can provide breathing space when life changes quickly.
Income protection can help life keep going over time, because recovery can take longer than expected and income is what keeps the everyday moving.
Framed like this, protection becomes less about fear and more about keeping choices open.
“I can help you plan for both the moment life changes and the months that follow”
A long list of numbers can come across like a sales pitch, even when the intention is reassurance.
Clients may not remember a percentage, but they will remember how you explained the process and what you did to help them get the details right.
That is where good disclosure matters. It protects outcomes later, and it supports the calm reassurance clients are looking for.
“Part of my job is to make sure the cover works when you need it, and that starts with getting the details right now.”
The Living with and beyond cancer report insight is not a reason to be alarmist.
It is a reason to be prepared.
If more people are likely to live with and beyond cancer, then the job of advice is to make financial resilience feel normal, not exceptional.
It is about helping clients feel ready, not worried, by making resilience part of normal advice before life changes their plans.
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Source:
1 Scottish Widows & Macmillan Cancer Support, Living with and beyond cancer in 2045 report, 2026 – https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/help-support/health-and-wellbeing/macmillan/living-with-cancer-report.html
