What is our cost of living support?
It’s our way of supporting you when your finances are feeling the pinch. When you’re faced with balancing your life cover payments with everyday expenses, this scheme is here to help. It could let you lower your monthly payments while keeping some level of life cover.
We’re committed to supporting you through challenging times, making sure you have one less thing to worry about.
Get a quote for cost of living support or if you're looking for wider or permanent support with your payments, take a look at the options you have to manage your life insurance cover.
Am I eligible?
You can apply for support from the scheme if:
- your policy number begins with BPL
you set up your policy after 14 November 2016
your policy is not an Over 50s Life Insurance policy
You can ask us to lower your cover along with your monthly payments. You’ll have the option of topping them back up again after one or two years.
All you need to do to get started is to let us know what you’d like to reduce your cover level to. We’ll give you a quote to help you decide whether this is the right option for you.
If your policy doesn’t meet the criteria we’ve laid out above, you can get in touch with us to discuss your options and how we can help you. Alternatively, you can visit our manage your policy pages to explore your options. You may be able to reduce your monthly payments by adjusting your cover, moving your policy end date forward, or asking for a temporary payment holiday.
Get a quote for the cost of living support scheme
Click the button below and fill in some basic details to get a quote.
We’ll send you a quote with the facts and figures you need to decide what’s right for you. A financial adviser may be able to help you choose the cover you need. They may charge you for their services. If you don’t have an adviser, try unbiased.co.uk.
If you go ahead, we’ll make the changes to your policy and let you know the details.
Topping up your cover
About a year after you’ve made changes to your cover, we’ll get in touch to see if you’d like to top it back up again. If you’re happy with your current cover, that’s fine – we’ll check in with you again the following year.
Here’s how topping up works, depending on the type of policy you have.
If you have level cover 
This is where the amount we’d pay out if you made a successful claims stays the same for the life of your policy. You’ll be able to top it back up to the starting level or by any amount less than this.
If you have decreasing cover 
This is where the amount we’d pay out goes down over time. You can top it back up to the level it would have been had you not reduced your cover. We’ll confirm the amount to you when we get in touch.
If you have escalating cover 
This is where the amount we’d pay out goes up over time. You can return it to the level it reached when you changed your cover or by any amount less than this.
If you decide to top up, we’ll need to ask you a few questions to confirm your medical situation and your direct debit details. Remember, you can make changes to your cover at any time. For more information, visit our life cover help page.
What you need to know
There are a few important points you need to consider if you decide to lower your cover and your premiums but want to top up your cover later:
- Reapplying – If you cancel your policy and reapply later, your entire cover is likely to cost more due to you being older.
- Current cover options – We can only offer the cover available at the time you make changes. This might have different terms, conditions, or eligibility rules than your current policy.
- Health and age factors – In rare cases, health factors or age might prevent you from topping up your policy.
- Cost of topping up – The part of your cover you’re topping up will likely cost more because you’ll be older than when you first took out the policy.
- Original terms – The part of your cover you keep will stay on the original terms and conditions, with the price based on your age and health when you first applied.