Scottish Provident has revealed it paid 90% of critical illness (CI) claims last year totaling £88m.
It declined 3% of claims for non-disclosure and 7% for not meeting the illness definition.
In total 1,038 claims were paid and 118 declined, with an average payout of £84,873 and largest claim of £1,090,362.
Cancer accounted for 63% of total claims paid, with heart attacks making up 12% of the claims.
Women accounted for 60% of cancer claims.
The provider paid 48 children's CI claims totaling £936,187.
Although it did decline 15 claims (24%) of these it explained: "Our experience with children's claims is that thankfully, their ailments are often not ‘critical', nor do they produce lasting symptoms, which explains the high percentage of unpaid claims for children's CI".
Susan Barclay, head of marketing at Scottish Provident, added: "Our report also highlights that the average age across all illnesses is 46 years old, showing how important it is for the working generation to give more thought to protecting themselves and their families in the event of a long term illness."
