Accelerated vs Additional Serious Illness Cover in Ireland

Serious illness cover sounds straightforward until you have to choose between accelerated, additional or standalone. The structure you choose affects who gets paid, how much you receive, and how easy it is to change later. This page explains the differences and why getting it right first time usually matters.

People don’t usually get serious illness cover wrong because they didn’t care. More often, it happens because insurers make it hard to see the consequences up front.

The names sound similar, but the outcomes can be very different.

Below, I’ll walk you through the three main types of serious illness cover used in Ireland, how they behave in real life, and why fixing a poor decision later often costs more than people expect.

First, what is Serious Illness Cover?

Serious illness cover pays a tax-free lump sum if you’re diagnosed with one of the specific illnesses listed in your policy and your condition meets the insurer’s definition.

The key thing to understand is that it doesn’t pay out for “being sick”. It only pays out if your illness meets the exact wording in the policy.

That part is the same across all types of serious illness cover. What changes is how the cover is structured.

For a full overview of how serious illness cover works in Ireland, read our main guide here.

The three structures insurers use

Standalone (or Independent) Serious Illness Cover

This is serious illness cover on its own, not attached to any other policy.

If you make a valid claim, you receive the full lump sum, no other policy is affected, and the serious illness policy ends after payment.

It’s clean and simple, but it’s also usually the most expensive option.

Accelerated Serious Illness Cover

Accelerated cover is attached to another policy, usually life insurance or mortgage protection.

If you make a serious illness claim, the lump sum is paid and the attached life or mortgage cover is reduced by the same amount. In effect, you’re using part of that cover early.

This is where people often misunderstand what they’ve bought, particularly when the cover is linked to a mortgage.

Additional Serious Illness Cover

Additional cover is also attached to life insurance, but it behaves differently.

If you make a serious illness claim, the lump sum is paid and your life insurance stays exactly the same. You get the illness payout without taking a slice off your life cover.

Pause before adding serious illness cover to mortgage protection

This is the bit that catches people out, so it’s worth being very clear about it.

When you take out mortgage protection, the policy is assigned to the bank. That means you’re agreeing that the bank owns the benefits of that policy until the mortgage is cleared.

Most people understand what that means if they die. The policy pays out and the mortgage is cleared.

Where confusion creeps in is when serious illness cover is added to a policy that’s been assigned.

If serious illness cover is attached to a mortgage protection policy and you make a valid claim, the payout goes to the bank, not to you. The money is used to reduce the mortgage balance.

That applies regardless of whether the serious illness cover is described as accelerated, independent or anything else. Once the policy is assigned, the bank controls the payout.

Some people assume the bank might release the money back to them if they need it for treatment or recovery. In practice, although possible, it’s unlikely. The bank’s role is to reduce its risk, not to decide how the money should be spent.

There’s nothing wrong with this setup if your intention is clear. If your goal is to have the mortgage cleared if you suffer a serious illness, adding serious illness cover to mortgage protection can do that.

The problem arises when people expect flexibility that isn’t there.

If you want serious illness cover that pays directly to you and can be used for income gaps, recovery time, or general financial breathing room, it needs to sit outside the mortgage protection arrangement on a separate policy.

This is another example of why structure matters. The same illness, the same cover amount, and the same insurer can lead to very different outcomes depending on how the policy is set up at the start.

Can you change the structure later?

Yes, you can, but insurers treat changes as new decisions rather than corrections.

If you try to restructure serious illness cover later on, you’re usually dealing with at least one of the following:

• Higher premiums because you’re older
• Full medical underwriting again
• New health disclosures
• Loadings or exclusions that weren’t there before

In some cases, the option you want may no longer be available at all.

None of that applies if the structure is right from day one, which is why advice matters before the application rather than after.

So which option is “best”?

There isn’t a single answer that suits everyone.

Standalone cover offers clarity but costs more. Accelerated cover can be efficient when it’s structured properly. Additional cover often gives a good balance, but only in the right setup.

The mistake is choosing based on price alone without understanding what reduces, who gets paid, and what happens if you need to make changes later.

The important bit

Serious illness cover isn’t just about how much cover you buy. It’s about how it’s built.

You can change things later, but insurers won’t ignore today’s age or health when you do. That’s why getting the structure right at the start is the best and safest option.

What to do next

If you want a recommendation based on how insurers treat these policies in practice, rather than how they’re described in brochures, the next step is straightforward.

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Editor’s note: This page focuses on structure rather than illness definitions. Insurers regularly update definitions and pricing, but the way accelerated, additional and standalone serious illness cover behaves does not change. Last reviewed and updated in 2026 to reflect current Irish insurer practice.