People who want to take out critical illness cover as well as a mortgage will be helped by a decrease of 7.3% in premium. For those who want stand-alone critical illness cover there is a percentage lowering of 5.7%.

The level to which this would help would be, if say a female non drinker aged 29 took out a critical illness cover of £75, 000 as well as a 30-year mortgage she will end up paying £17.91 a month as compared to a previous £19.21.

If she were taking out stand-alone critical illness cover she would be paying pay £29.94 a month instead of £31.64.

This information was made public soon after the National Director for Health and Work, Dame Carol Black,informed that almost 175 million working days are wasted annually due to sickness, meaning the government loses around £100 billion in productivity, taxes and benefits.