Covid-19 vaccination will not affect your life insurance

I’m looking to buy life insurance but I’m due to get my Covid vaccination soon and heard a rumour that this could affect my premiums or policy. Is this true? 

What exclusions, if any, are life insurance companies allowed to impose on new customers to do with coronavirus?

Life insurers may ask questions about whether you’ve had Covid-19 before you take out a policy. But they won’t ask if you’ve had a Covid-19 jab before signing you up as a member

Angelique Ruzicka, from This is Money, responds: The rumour you are referring to could have come from a fake document that was originally spotted by Allianz in Australia, and which has now also been circulated to clients in the UK.

According to reports, the fake policy document says: ‘If you consent to taking a Covid-19 vaccine your consent is ‘self-inflicted’, it was your choice to have the experimental medical procedure and therefore insurance will not cover any damage or death. All injuries for insurance must not be accidental and a treatment by consent is not an accident.’

As far as scams go, it’s not the most sophisticated one we’ve seen, but it’s still enough to shatter some people’s views of the safety of the Covid-19 jabs and place doubt onto insurance company’s promises that they will pay out.

But as far as insurance experts and insurers are concerned getting vaccinated by a qualified medical practitioner is not deemed a ‘self-inflicted’ or ‘experimental’ exercise and would still be covered.

Gwilym Pugh, life insurance expert at insurance broker I’m Insured, adds: The Covid-19 vaccine will not affect your life insurance cover. There has been a huge amount of speculation on social media, spreading the message that life insurance companies will not pay claims if a person dies within one year of receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, and that taking the vaccination will invalidate any life insurance policies.

Gwilym Pugh, life insurance expert at insurance broker I’m Insured

The Association for British Insurers has been clear to point out that having the Covid-19 vaccine won’t affect your cover. 

Although life insurance providers have started asking about an applicant’s history of coronavirus, none have made steps to exclude it as a claimable event, nor have they raised any issue around having or not having the vaccine.

Life insurers don’t ask any questions about Covid-19 vaccinations, either as part of a new application or to their existing customers. Therefore, being vaccinated will not affect a current or new policy in any way.

If you have had Covid-19 recently, you may find that an insurer asks you to apply after a period of time, in order to receive a decision – typically 30 days. 

However, this is only for a small number of people, and is usually in association with another underlying condition.

Life insurance policies very rarely include exclusions and there are none that involve non-payouts for pandemics or viruses. In fact, any death is a claimable event, which includes those for Covid-19.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk