Mental Health is an area where it pays to check your life insurance policy carefully. Every provider is different, which can make comparisons confusing. You may have heard that insurers are out to 'trick you' and make sure that they won't have to pay out, but they're not that devious or mean spirited – at least Pinnacle Life isn’t anyway!

There is an awareness of the impact of lockdowns and fear of covid on our mental health, but we still don't understand the full extent or the potential long-term impact. Many of the available statistics on mental health are from 2020 or prior, and don't take the pandemic into account. We can probably assume that the trend we were already seeing before 2020 has escalated and that we have, as many mental health professionals have declared, a mental health crisis on our hands.

Which means life insurers need to think about how mental health is covered by their policies more than ever before.

If you're specifically looking for life insurance that covers mental health, ask for a copy of the policy document so that you can check that specific policy.

When it comes to Pinnacle Life policies, we try to be as upfront as possible, so people know exactly what they are or aren't covered for.

Life Insurance – whether we will cover you for mental health issues depends on your situation, which we assess when you take out the policy. We do provide cover for suicide; however, like our competitors, our policies do not provide cover for suicide for the first 13 months. (The reason for this is to make sure that people who may be thinking about suicide aren't influenced by thinking that their family will be financially looked after immediately – when the most important thing to the family is having that person around in the future.)
Income Protection – not covered. Pinnacle life Income protection policies won't pay out a claim if the claim was directly or indirectly contributed to or caused by a Mental Illness. We have this exclusion so that we can maintain affordable premiums for our customers.
Critical Illness – not covered. Critical Illness covers 24 conditions specified in your policy. A mental illness is not one of the 24 conditions.
Disability Cover – not covered. Disability cover protects you when you are permanently unable to work due to Illness, accident or injury and cannot do your usual occupation or suffer one of the conditions covered by our definitions. A mental illness is not one of the conditions covered by Disability cover.

When you apply for cover, we ask about mental illness the same way we ask about other illnesses, diseases, injuries and lifestyle choices. We ask questions to understand more about you and how likely it is that you will need to make a claim.

The kind of questions we ask about mental health include:

Within the past five years, have you had a mental health or psychological condition including depression, anxiety or stress that required professional advice, treatment or time off work?
Have you ever been admitted as an in-patient or hospitalised for depression, anxiety or stress?
Have you ever attempted suicide?
Was your mental illness brought on by any particular event or circumstance?
What medication, treatment, or counselling have you had (and continue to have) for this condition?

We might also ask to look at your medical records. That’s so we can get the full picture and base our decisions on as robust information as possible. We use data to back up any decisions we make, so the more information we have the better. Under the Human Rights Act we can use an expert opinion when there are no records or data available, for example doctors, underwriters, and actuaries.

It's best to answer everything as honestly as possible so that there are no hassles at claim time. We know it can be a pain to answer all the questions up front and gather the information, so we do our best to support you. Our underwriter, Emma, is always happy to chat through any questions you may have.

If you are worried about your own mental health, or someone else’s, the best place for help is your GP. Or if you’d rather talk to someone else, there are a number of alternatives:

• LIFELINE 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP) (available 24/7)

• YOUTHLINE: 0800 376 633

• NEED TO TALK? Free call or text 1737 (available 24/7)

• WHATSUP: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm)

• DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757 or TEXT 4202