Bright Grey Personal Protection Menu

The Bright Grey Personal Protection Menu is a menu of protection covers rather than a single product. You choose from five: Life Cover, Critical Illness Cover, Life or Critical Illness Cover, Income Cover for Sickness and Payment Cover for Sickness, and the plan is built from whichever of those you need¹. Bright Grey is a division of Royal London, and the plan documents say so directly².

The plan is a protection product, not a savings one. It has no cash value at any time, so there is nothing to cash in if you stop paying or decide you no longer want it³. Cover runs for a fixed term you choose at the start, and claims are paid as a lump sum or as regular payments depending on which cover pays out¹.

This page sets out how each cover works, who can apply, how to add to the plan later, how claims are paid, and what happens if something goes wrong. The provider's own site carries today's figures for premiums and cover amounts.

The five covers on the menu

The plan documents do not agree on every term. One version gives Income Cover for Sickness a term of 1 to 50 years¹, which does not match the 5 to 40 years given elsewhere, and one version gives Payment Cover for Sickness a term of 5 to 50 years in one row and 5 to 48 years in another¹. The cover summary is the document that states the term on a particular plan.

Level, increasing or decreasing cover: how each one works

The lump sum covers on the menu can be set up in different ways, and the choice affects what the payout is worth when it arrives. Level cover pays a fixed amount whenever the claim happens. Decreasing cover reduces over the term, which suits a repayment mortgage because the debt falls alongside it. Increasing cover rises over time, so the payout keeps some pace with the cost of living⁶.

How an increasing lump sum rises is set out in the plan documents, and the versions disagree. One description is a selected rate of increase each year, and another is an increase linked to the retail price index, subject to a minimum and a maximum⁷. Both appear in the same 2013 document, and the two figures are not reconciled. The same split appears in the 2011 documents⁸. The cover summary is the document that states your own terms, and the provider's own site carries today's figures.

For income-style covers, the choice is narrower. Income Cover for Sickness and Payment Cover for Sickness are offered as level or increasing cover⁹.

Income Cover or Payment Cover for Sickness: deferred periods and payment terms

These two covers pay out when illness or injury stops someone working, and the difference between them is how the money arrives. Income Cover for Sickness pays a regular income. Payment Cover for Sickness pays a monthly amount, and the plan documents give a maximum of £12,500 each month in one version, with a separate figure of £1,400 if the person is not working¹⁰. The two figures sit in the same document and are not reconciled, so the cover summary is the document that governs an individual plan.

Both covers have a deferred period, which is the waiting time before payments start. The plan documents are clear that no claim is paid under any cover until the end of its deferred period, and the length of that period is shown in the additional features section of the cover summary¹¹. Choosing a longer deferred period usually means the cover costs less, because the insurer waits longer before paying, but it also means relying on savings or sick pay for longer.

Once payments start, the plan documents give three options for how long they continue: throughout the term, one year, or two years². A one-year or two-year payment period is a short-term arrangement, and it is worth checking which one a plan holds, because a claim that lasts longer than the payment period will stop paying even though the plan itself continues.

Who can apply: age limits, term lengths and residency

The maximum entry age across the covers is 59⁵. The maximum end age varies by cover: one version of the plan details gives 64, 74 or 84 depending on which cover is chosen⁴, and another gives a maximum end age of 64 for Life Cover⁶. The plan documents do not reconcile these, so the cover summary is the document that states the end age on a particular plan.

Residency matters for the cover increase options rather than for the plan itself. The increase options require the person covered to be resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man¹⁰. The plan documents also set an age limit for the incapacity definitions: any illness or injury arising before age 65 falls within the own occupation definition of incapacitated and of Total Permanent Disability¹².

Children can be covered under the plan where it includes Critical Illness Cover or Life or Critical Illness Cover. The child must be a natural, legally adopted or financially dependent child living with the person covered, and the age range in the plan documents runs from 30 days to 18 years¹¹. One version of the documents gives the range as birth to 21 years for a natural child³, so the age limit depends on which version of the terms applies to the plan.

Adding to your cover after marriage, a mortgage or a new child

The plan includes cover increase options, which let you raise the amount of cover after certain life events without a fresh medical assessment. The events listed are marriage or becoming a civil partner, an increase in a personal mortgage, and the birth or adoption of a child¹⁰. The person covered must be under 55 at the time of the increase, the plan must have been accepted on standard terms, and the option must be exercised within three months of the event¹⁰.

One version of the plan details gives a longer window, six months from the event, and lists salary increase alongside the other events¹³. The two versions disagree on the deadline, so anyone planning to use the option should check the cover summary for their own plan rather than rely on either figure.

There are limits on how much can be added. One version of the plan details caps the increase at the lower of half the original amount of cover or £50,000 for lump sum covers, and £8,000 a year for Income Cover for Sickness³. Another version gives a maximum aggregate increase across all events of the lower of £125,000 for lump sum covers or £8,000 a year for regular payment covers⁸. The two figures are not reconciled, so the cover summary is the document that governs.

There is also a reinstatement option for joint plans. Where more than one person is covered and a Life Cover or Critical Illness Cover claim is paid, the other person can ask to replace the joint cover, but the request must be made within three months of the date the claim is paid³. The option can be used only once¹².

Making a claim and how it is paid

Claims are paid by direct credit to a bank account, or by another method agreed with the insurer¹. The plan documents state this consistently across versions¹⁴. There is no cash value to the plan at any time, so a claim is the only way money comes out of it³.

The claims process itself is not set out in detail in the plan documents. What the documents do give is the contact route: phone 0845 6094 500, email help@brightgrey.com, fax 0845 6094 523, or writing to Customer Care Team, Bright Grey, 2 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1BG³. The same details appear across several versions of the plan details⁷.

For anyone claiming on a plan, the documents that matter are the cover summary and the plan details. Royal London's existing customer pages carry the plan details for plans taken out in different years, and the plan details for the Personal Protection Menu run from 2003 to 2015¹⁵. If a plan was taken out in a particular year, the version of the plan details from that year is the one that applies.

Where a claim is made under a cover with a deferred period, no payment is made until that period ends¹¹. For income-style covers, the deferred period is shown in the additional features section of the cover summary, so it is worth checking before assuming when payments will start.

What the plan does not do: no cash value and missed payments

The plan has no cash value at any time³. That is stated in every version of the plan documents, and it means there is nothing to surrender, nothing to borrow against and nothing to fall back on if the plan is cancelled. The same point is made about income protection products generally: they are not savings or investment plans and have no cash value unless a valid claim is made¹⁶.

If a payment is missed, the plan documents set out what happens. One version says the plan is cancelled if a subsequent payment remains unpaid for more than five weeks from the date it is payable³. The same document also contains the joint life reinstatement option, which lets the other person on a joint plan replace the cover within three months of a claim being paid³. The two provisions sit in the same document and are not reconciled, so the cover summary is the document that governs a particular plan.

Cancelling after the cooling-off period has its own consequences. If you cancel, the plan ends on the day your next payment would otherwise be payable, and payments already made are not refunded⁷. Within the 30-day cooling-off period, by contrast, any payments made are refunded¹⁷.

Complaints, FSCS protection and who stands behind Bright Grey

Bright Grey is a division of Royal London, and the plan documents state this directly³. The firm behind it is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference number 117672, with an authorisation effective date of 1 December 2001¹⁸. It appears on the Bank of England's list of insurers incorporated in the UK authorised to carry out contracts of insurance, as at 1 September 2026¹⁹. The company is active on the Companies House register, company number 00099064, incorporated on 31 July 1908²⁰.

Bright Grey is one of the trading names on that authorisation, alongside Scottish Provident, Scottish Life Pensions, Royal London and Caledonian Life¹⁸. That matters for protection, because FSCS protection applies at firm level and may be shared across brands under the same authorisation²¹. Money in plans under any of those names counts towards the same firm's protection, not separate limits.

The plan documents state that the plan is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme⁴. The scheme protects a range of financial products, each with its own limit to the amount of compensation it can pay²². For insurance, the scheme covers things such as life insurance and income protection, and the limits depend on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim²¹. The FSCS has a checker that lets you confirm whether a particular firm and product is covered²¹.

If a complaint cannot be resolved satisfactorily, it can be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service¹². The plan documents give the contact details for complaints as phone 0845 6094 500, email help@brightgrey.com, fax 0845 6094 523, or writing to Customer Care Team, Bright Grey, 2 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1BG⁷.