Ian
Yes. If the company is paying the premium then it is a "benefit in kind" and would be part of your P11D return which is a return completed by all directors/business owners and all employees earning over £8500. (incidentally, the level was fixed to catch "high earners" back in 1973!
Guess what? The level was never increased!
Paul you are right. You can only ever claim on one policy for one claim. Various policies are around. "Critical illness" pays out a lump sum when such an event occurs e.g. heart attack, cancer, stroke,loss of limb although as with most things there are degrees of cancer/stroke/heart attack etc.
"Permanent Health" insurance pays out an income for an agreed number of years or until such time as you retire, whichever comes sooner. (Typically you would take it out till early/mid 50s when most of your liabilities should have been repaid and to keep the premium down. Premiums can also be kept down by choosing a lower level of cover or lengthing the time to have to wait until the benefit kicks in. It is a better value for policy than those which only pay out for a max of 12 months.
Health insurance covers illness and treatment in hospital. Premiums can be reduced by choosing a higher lever of excess or being treated in NHS hospital rather than private hospital (you can even be paid for being treated in an NHS hospital.)
Like any insurance policy if you never claim on it you will say it is a waste of money. (The best type of claim would be a minor heart attack under your critical illness which would pay out a large lump sum whilst you should make a full recovery from the attack!)
All policy premiums reflect your age when you take out the policy, your general state of health at the time, the length of time you want the policy to run for, the level of excess you agree to.
SPeaking personally I have critical illness covering both me and my wife. We also have health insurance. Health insurance costs about £120 per month with an excess of £250 per claim. As some of you may know I had a very large tumour removed from inside my spine 4 years ago. Whilst I could have gone NHS as it was considered an urgent case (it was growing so quickly it would have snapped my spine from the inside (ouch)) I had had my surgery privately even before the referral letter had come through from the NHS for the initial consultation.
Today I am on my way to London to have another tumour removed from inside my left cheek bone and which the consultants in Stockport and Manchester both thought it was too complicated for them to operate on and so referred me on.
I have been able to choose when to have my operations to minimise the disruption to my business. Premiums over the last 4 years circa £5200, bills paid by the insurance company c£67000.
SO if you never hear from me again then you know something has gone wrong
....and Pete Sweeney... you will have to find somebody else to give my talk at next year's CCDO.
The Doc
aka Roger
