Scottish Widows has created a new life and critical illness product range designed to make it easier for homeowners to protect themselves and their families.

While one in three people in the UK have life cover and just one in 10 have critical illness cover, the new ‘Plan and Protect’ products aim to help make mortgage protection more accessible, with premiums starting from £5 per month.

Designed around research and feedback from customers and advisers, Plan and Protect has just seven health and lifestyle questions, giving customers an instant decision and it only takes around 20 to 30 minutes to be covered for up to £500,000.

Plan and Protect is available to Lloyds Banking Group’s Halifax, Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland mortgage customers in branches, with the options of standalone Life Cover and Body Cover, as well as a combined Life and Body Cover.

After being trialled across one of the Halifax branch network regions since October 2018, it has now been rolled out across the UK to more than 1300 mortgage and protection advisers in Halifax, Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland branches.

Scott Cadger, head of protection underwriting and claims strategy at Scottish Widows, said: “Plan and Protect is the first step in our journey to help transform the protection market, leveraging Lloyds Banking Group’s reach and scale and designed to meet the existing and future needs of a changing UK population.

“We’ve put a lot of energy into research, speaking to customers and advisers to understand their needs and pain points. We’ve created a straightforward product, transparent terms and conditions and a simple process that provides an instant decision to every customer, while providing value for money cover.

“Our mortgage will often be the biggest financial commitment we’ll ever make, so having the right cover in place means customers can trust us to be there for them and focus on their health and wellbeing – instead of worrying about keeping a roof over their heads.”