Home / - Total and Permanent Disability
When a Critical Illness Cover or Life Insurance (Assurance) with Critical Illness Cover plan is arranged, this will usually include Total Permanent Disability cover also.
When the life office pays a claim for Total Permanent Disability will depend on the ‘definition of disability’ on the plan.
The life office will decide which definition applies when the plan is underwritten at outset. The definition of disability the life assured receives will depend on the applicant’s health, whether they are working and if so, their occupation.
Examples of the definitions that can apply are:
Own occupation
This means that the life office will pay out the cover if an illness or injury permanently prevents the life assured from doing the essential duties of their occupation.
Working tasks
Sometimes life offices cannot give the applicant an own occupation definition. This might be because of the type of work that they do or because they are not working. The life office may then offer a definition which will pay out depending on whether the applicant is able to carry out specific work-related tasks. If this definition applies then the life office will pay out the cover if an illness or injury permanently prevents the applicant from performing a number of tasks, for example:
Walking
The ability to walk 200 metres on a level surface with a stick or other aid without stopping or severe discomfort.
Lifting
The ability to pick up 1kg from table height and carry it for five metres.
Using a pen/pencil/keyboard
The ability to use a pen, pencil or keyboard with either hand or using any aids.
Hearing
The ability to hear well enough to understand someone speaking a common language in a normal voice in a quiet room with a hearing aid.
Speech
The ability to be understood in a common language in a quiet room.
Vision
The ability to see well enough to read 16 point print using spectacles or other aids.
Living tasks (or Activities of Daily Living)
If the life assured is over age 65 when a claim is made, the life office may apply a definition called ‘living tasks’. The life office could then meet the claim if an illness or injury permanently prevents the life assured from performing a number of tasks, for example:
Washing
The ability to wash in the bath or shower (including getting into and out of the bath and shower) such that an adequate level of personal hygiene can be maintained.
Dressing
The ability to put on, take off, secure and unfasten all necessary garments and any medically necessary braces, artificial limbs or other surgical appliances.
Transferring
The ability to move from a bed to an upright chair, or wheelchair and vice versa, and to get on or off a toilet or commode.
Mobility
The ability to move from one room to another on a level surface.
Continence
The ability to manage bowel and bladder functions such that an adequate level of personal hygiene can be maintained.
Feeding
The ability to feed oneself once food and drink have been prepared and made available. In some circumstances, the life office may not be able to offer Total Permanent Disability cover. This will be confirmed during underwriting.
04 October 2007 14:32:03
The cost of life insurance can be affected if a customer's body is not "in beautiful condition", according to one adviser.
Stewart Parr, an insurance expert for financial consultants Moneyextra.com, pointed out that an individual's current state of health is likely to be the key variable for the purchase of life cover.
"Underwriters get alarmed by the presence of cancer and heart disease and conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure, particularly if there is a family history of illness," he commented.
He added that more attention is now given to other aspects of an unhealthy lifestyle, with excess bodyweight and smoking viewed as particularly detrimental.
Smokers already lose out on cheap life cover according to the adviser, while obesity-induced heart disease is predicted to overtake the habit as a major cause of early death in the UK.
Mr Parr highlighted that extra benefits such as critical illness also add to a premium's price.
A new type of life insurance, income protection and critical illness cover launched recently by Prudential UK and South African insurer Discovery aims to reward customers who have healthy lifestyles.
PruProtect offers "vitality points" which can be offset against the cost of annual premiums.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online.
10 October 2007 16:08:29
The importance of critical illness cover has been underlined by new research showing the long-term effects of a stressful job.
Individuals can reportedly double their risk of heart problems if they have already had a heart attack and they are stressed at work.
Scientists from University Laval in Quebec asked 972 men and women aged 35 to 59 years who had returned to work after a heart attack to rate their job strain.
After almost six years they returned to the participants and found that 206 of them had a confirmed recurrent coronary heart disease (CHD) event.
Commenting that chronic job strain was associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of recurrent CHD events after taking other factors into account, the researchers advised that patients and doctors put a greater emphasis on evaluating work stress.
"These results suggest that preventive interventions aimed at reducing job strain might have a significant impact on recurrent CHD events," they wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
A recent survey revealed the impact of Britain's long working hours on people's health.
Legal and General questioned over 2,000 people about their health anxieties over the last three months and found that over a fifth felt stressed by their daily routines.
05 April 2007 16:06:10
Scientists have discovered how a plant hormone interacts with its hormone receptor for the first time, in a development which they say could lead to the creation of new cancer treatments.
In a new study published in the latest edition of the journal Nature, researchers describe how the plant hormone auxin interacts with the enzyme TIR1, which is similar to the human enzymes which are linked to cancer.
By determining that auxin is like a "molecular glue" which improves the ability of TIR1 to bind to substrate polypeptides, academics from the University of Washington, Indiana University and Cambridge University believe that new drugs could be developed as a result.
Enzymes like TIR1, known as ubiquitin ligases, are known to influence the division of cancerous cells and have been linked to a number of conditions such as Parkinson's disease and colon and breast cancers.
"Although ubiquitin ligases have long been recognized as potential drug targets for treating cancers and other human diseases, it's been a bumpy road for scientists to come up with a feasible approach," said research leader and University of Washington pharmacologist Ning Zheng.
"The mechanism by which auxin works points out a new direction for us to develop therapeutic compounds targeting ubiquitin ligases," Zheng added.
Meanwhile, researchers at Sweden's Lund University have conducted initial research which appears to show that the compound from a type of fungus which grows on decaying trees can curb the growth of prostrate cancer cells.
