The recession should not lead people to forego critical illness cover, Scottish Widows has warned.
People should not attempt to save money by cutting out critical illness cover, according to one of the UK's biggest insurance providers.
Scottish Widows made the warning as it released its critical illness cover claims data for November 2007 to October last year. Various reports have suggested that Britons are cutting back on different types of insurance to save funds during the recession.
Richard Jones, head of protection at the firm, said: "Critical Illness cover is extremely important, no matter what the economic climate, as illness can affect us at any time." However, according to a study released by fellow insurance provider Axa last month, almost half of the UK population does not have any form of protection cover - including critical illness - in place.
Critical illness cover provides insurance for people in the event that they suffer from a serious health problem. The Scottish Widows figures revealed that the three highest reasons for claims were cancer, heart disease and strokes.
The average age at which men made a claim stood at 48, while women tended to claim at an average age of 45. Breast cancer contributed to more than half of the cancer claims made by women.
