Group Critical Illness cover

Group Critical Illness cover can provide employees with a tax-free lump sum after they, their spouse or partner (if covered), or their child survive a covered critical illness for 14 days.

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Notice

We've recently introduced enhancements to our Group Critical Illness definitions, in many cases surpassing minimum standards set by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

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Support services
Giving complete peace of mind

Our Group Critical Illness customers automatically have access to a range of support services whenever they’re needed.
  • Help@hand

    Total health and wellbeing support for employees, including remote GPs, mental health support and full integrated Employee Assistance Programme – with a comprehensive employee communications toolkit.

  • Unum Cancer Pathway

    Quick and easy access to personalised cancer support upon diagnosis, through treatment and after treatment - whenever it's needed.

Overview
Group Critical Illness from Unum

Group Critical Illness cover can pay a tax-free lump sum directly to an employee should they, their spouse or partner (if covered) or child, suffer any of a list of defined medical conditions or surgical procedures and survive for 14 days.

The lump sum can be used however an employee wants to. For example, they could fund private health treatment, make adaptations to their home, take time off to care for a loved one, or take a well-deserved holiday once their treatment is finished.

Cover options:

Base cover: 13 critical illnesses including heart attack, stroke, cancer and dementia including Alzheimer's disease.
Extra cover: Base conditions plus an additional 26 others including brain tumour, rheumatoid arthritis, terminal illness and total permanent disability.

Funding options:

Standard: Employer-funded and needs a minimum of 3 employees.
Flexible: Funded either by the employer or jointly with employees. Available for policies covering 150 or more employees.
Voluntary: Employee-funded with premiums collected by the employer. Available for companies with 150 or more employees.


View documents


Useful resources

Simplicity Critical Illness user guide - UP3277 01/2024
Critical Illness events covered
Group Critical Illness User Guide - UP845 01/2024
Group Critical Illness Guide

Why choose us
The benefits with Unum

Our Group Critical Illness offers either a multiple of between 1 and 5x each member’s salary or a fixed amount of benefit for each member with a maximum benefit per claim of £500,000.
  • Cancer Pathway for individual specialist support

    As the number of people living with cancer increases, so does the need to support those impacted.

    Cancer is incredibly difficult for the person going through it, and for family and friends. It can also be tough for employers to know how to deal with the situation.

    Critical Illness policyholders and insured employees can access Unum’s Cancer Pathway – including access to Reframe – at no additional cost.

    The Cancer Pathway provides quick and easy access for employers and employees to cancer support at diagnosis, through treatment, after treatment and end of life – whenever it is needed. 

    Employers can benefit from Unum’s trained professionals who will aim to contact them within 48 hours of making contact to assess individual needs and create a tailored pathway to support the employee and employer through the cancer journey.

  • Cover for the family (including children’s cover)

    Unum’s enhanced Critical Illness product provides cover for 7 child-specific illnesses as standard, including cerebral palsy and spina bifida.

    Children are automatically covered for 25% of a member’s cover (up to £25,000) from birth until their 18th birthday (or 21 if in full time education) for all covered conditions.

    A member’s spouse or partner can also be covered for up to £250,000 at an additional cost for complete family cover.

  • Second and subsequent cancer cover

    In most cases, if an employee has previously suffered a critical illness, they won’t be able to claim for a recurrence. But our second and subsequent cancer cover means, that once they have recovered, if they are diagnosed with a new and unrelated cancer in the future that meets the insured definition, they may be able to claim.

  • Advance payment

    The policy pays out if the member is placed on a UK waiting list for one of the included surgical procedures, such as heart surgery, bypass grafts, or an organ transplant that meets the insured definition.

An employer exploring communication tools online

Top tools for communicating your Critical Illness policy

Our employer toolkit contains everything you need to tell your employees about the benefits of a Critical Illness policy.

You can use any or all of these resources to help increase employee engagement.

Access toolkit

Our Simplicity Critical Illness product offers simplified options and administration.

Simplicity Critical Illness is designed for employers with 50 or more employees who want to give a more basic level of critical illness cover to their employees for the first time.

  • Benefits up to £60,000 per member
  • Pre existing conditions covered members’ medical histories will not prevent claims for events arising after they join


Contact us

Any questions?

View FAQs
  • Customers are welcomed to sign up for one of our 30-minute online welcome webinars, known as Wellbeing Ready sessions. 

    These provide onboarding support explaining all the health and wellbeing benefits your policy provides access to. The sessions include a Q&A and useful downloads to get you started quickly on registering for these services so your employees can benefit faster.

    Register for Wellbeing Ready
  • Yes. Help@hand is available to employees insured under their employer’s Group Income Protection, Group Life or Group Critical Illness policy. There is no additional cost to the employer.

    Selected Help@hand services are also available to uninsured employees at no additional cost. Employers can extend the full suite of services to employees not covered by the Group Risk policy for a cost of £4.15 per month.

    * Help@hand® is a digital, value-added service provided to Unum Limited (“Unum”) by Square Health Limited which connects employees of Unum customers to third party specialists who can help manage their, and their families’, health and wellbeing. Access is facilitated by Unum at no cost to the Unum customer and with no increase in premium. However, employees will be liable for charges for medication and delivery, referral letters and private fit notes. Unum may withdraw or change this service at any time. The service is entirely separate to the Unum insurance policy and is subject to the terms and conditions of the relevant third-party specialists. Unum will not receive any payment or commission from Square Health Limited arising from any employee involvement with Help@hand. Available to UK residents only.

    Square Health Limited is registered in England and Wales under company number 07054181 and has its registered office at Crown House, William Street, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1AT.

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