Millions of British children could be left in poverty as parents fail to provide financial protection for their children if they were to pass away or become critically ill, reveals research by protection specialist Bright Grey.* As the UK falls further into recession and family finances feel the pinch, British parents have admitted to leaving their children’s financial security to chance.
Over 7 million UK parents (64 per cent)** believe they do not have adequate financial protection in place to look after their dependent children if they died or became ill. Being time-short or budget-stretched could be preventing parents from taking action.
More than 1.6 million parents (15 per cent)*** said they have never thought about how their family would survive financially if the worst happened. One in 10 expect their children to live off family savings but with the average person having saved just £2.84 per day, or £1,000 last year**** this could be a short lived security blanket.
Bright Grey estimates that for less than £20 a month (the equivalent of putting aside £2.84 per day for a week) could buy a male, aged 30 next birthday £87,000 worth of cover – a figure that would take more than a lifetime to achieve for those parents saving £1,000 a year.
Roger Edwards, Proposition Director at Bright Grey said:
“People don’t want to think about the financial consequences of themselves or their partner not being around, but it is one of the most important areas of your finances to get right, especially if you have a dependent family. It is worrying that so many families admit to not having sufficient protection in place, but are doing very little to address this.
“People might be shying away from sorting out cover because it seems a time consuming task or an expense they don’t need at the moment, but the cost of life cover has been falling over the last few years.”
Bright Grey recently launched Lifestyle Protection, a revolutionary way to buy life and critical illness cover instantly online, paving the way for faster, cheaper and simpler insurance. The product, which is available to buy on theidol.com, tescocompare.com, moneysupermarket.com and comparethemarket.com enables consumers, for the first time, to directly receive an instant decision on life or critical illness insurance and be immediately covered.
Lifestyle Protection aims to break down the perception that buying life cover or critical illness cover is expensive or a lengthy time-consuming process – putting some people off altogether.
