British Friendly has launched Children’s Critical Illness Cover as an optional benefit which can be added for an additional cost to its new Protect and Breathing Space Income Protection policies.

It provides policyholders with a cash lump sum if their child is diagnosed with one of 78 listed critical illnesses, including eight child specific conditions. It includes a flexible option to add at a later stage in the event of one of five life changes which include pregnancy and adoption.

The amount of cover that can be selected ranges from £1,000 up to £25,000 and covers children from birth until their 18th birthday or 23rd birthday if they are in full time education. There is no limit to the number of children covered, which means that any future children are also covered and there is no survival period required after diagnosis.

Eligible children include the policyholder’s biological, step or legally adopted children or children under the policyholder’s legal guardianship or who a policyholder has been granted legal responsibility for.

Alan Knowles, managing director at Cura, said: “As an adviser who usually prioritises income protection over other plans, the ability to add comprehensive children’s critical illness cover is welcome news. We don’t want to think about these things happening to our children, but if it does then having some money can really help reduce the financial worry.

“And since some clients won’t have the budget to get their own critical illness plan and some are not able to get it due to medical disclosures, being able to add a comprehensive child benefit to their income protection will help them widen their protection where they couldn’t previously.”

Natalie Summerson, sales and marketing director at British Friendly, added: “Caring for a child with a serious illness will be a deeply distressing and worrying time and the financial impact on families caring for that child can be significant. That’s why we have created this new additional benefit to provide financial support to our members so they can focus on the health and wellbeing of their child.

“This is our second optional benefit following the launch of Fracture Cover in 2023 and it is crucially important as we continue developing and enhancing our proposition to provide flexible, relevant and tailored solutions to the Income Protection marketplace.”