Friends Life has launched an employer-funded cancer-specific insurance policy.
The insurer is making the group risk product available to employers looking to insure 100 or more employees.
The benefit will be pay a fixed lump-sum benefit of £25,000 to any employee who is diagnosed with a cancer covered by the plan.
It is payable on diagnosis of the cancer, as defined in the policy cover, provided the member survives for at least 14 days post diagnosis.
The policy will not, however, cover employees for any pre-existing cancers.
Members of the scheme will also benefit from added value services that include:
- A cancer support service that offers access to support advisers.
- Bupa Healthline.
- Best Doctors.
Friends Life’s launch comes as more than 70% of critical illness claims across the industry are related to cancer, according to research by Group Risk Development (Grid) in May 2014.
Friends Life research of more than 2,000 employees also found that more than half (51%) of respondents wanted their employer to care for them more.
Anna Spender, head of group protection at Friends Life, said: “Almost 70% of critical illness claims across the industry are related to cancer, and while cancer incidence rates are increasing, so are survival rates.
“Given the research from Macmillan and an ageing work population, the prevalence of cancer in the workplace is likely to rise. so we wanted to do something that would really benefit employees.
“Group Cancer Cover has been designed to be affordable and simple, providing a level of benefit to help with the additional costs that people face while going through cancer treatment.
“It means employers with budget constraints that may have little in the way of workplace benefits can take advantage of it and offer their staff valuable cover.”
Macmillan Cancer Support predicts that there will be more than 2.5 million people in the UK living with cancer in 2015.
What about supporting workers who have a cancer patient within their family? They are just as vulnerable especially when the family member is dependent upon them.
Ropner Insurance Services Limited has created a similar product in conjunction with a major insurer in the UK, but only require a minimum number of 25 people to be in the scheme or the group premium to be £1,000. This should be attractive to more companies than the Friends Life insurance.