Unum: protection insurance, dental cover and how to claim

Unum is a UK insurer that sells protection cover: insurance that pays out when someone cannot work because of illness or injury, or when they die or are diagnosed with a serious condition. It sells most of this through employers, as group schemes, and also sells individual policies. Its dental cover is sold under two brand names, Unum Dental and Dencover¹.

The firm behind the brand is Unum Limited, which has been authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority since 1 December 2001 and appears on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance¹. It has traded since 1970³. Its own website is unum.co.uk¹.

What follows is what each type of cover does, who it is aimed at, how a claim works, how to complain, and what protects you if an insurer fails. Unum sets its own prices, so no rates or fees appear here; the figures for your own policy come from Unum.

What Unum offers: group and individual protection insurance

Protection insurance comes in three main types: life insurance or assurance, income protection, and critical illness cover⁸. Unum sells across these categories, mostly to employers who take out cover for their staff, and also to individuals who buy a policy for themselves.

Group schemes work differently from individual policies. An employer arranges one policy covering many employees, and the terms are set for the whole group rather than negotiated person by person. That usually means less medical underwriting at the start, but the cover ends when the job does. An individual policy belongs to you, continues if you change employer, and is priced on your own health, age and occupation.

The practical difference for a reader is what happens when you leave. With a group scheme, the cover is a benefit of the job. With your own policy, you keep paying and keep the cover. If you are offered cover through work, it is worth knowing which of the two you have before you rely on it.

Unum's own site carries the current product range and the figures for each policy. The general guide to protection insurance explains how these products compare across the market.

Income protection, critical illness and life cover explained

Income protection pays out when you cannot work because of illness or disability for a period of time. It covers a wide range of conditions, including physical ones such as cancer or a heart attack and mental health conditions including stress⁹. That breadth is the point of the product: it is not tied to a list of named illnesses.

Critical illness cover pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a specified serious illness. It can be added to a life insurance policy or bought separately¹⁰. Because it works from a defined list, the wording of that list is what decides whether a claim is paid.

Life cover pays on death, and many policies also pay early if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness¹¹. It is usually bought to clear a mortgage or leave money to family rather than to replace income during your working life.

The three do different jobs and are often sold together. Income protection replaces earnings while you are alive but unable to work; critical illness provides a lump sum at diagnosis; life cover provides for others after your death. Which combination suits a household depends on what it already has, including any cover provided by an employer.

Who Unum's cover is for: employers, employees and individuals

Unum's main market is employers. A company takes out a group income protection or group life scheme, and employees are covered as a benefit of working there. The employer decides the scheme rules, the level of cover and how long it lasts, so an employee's first question about a group scheme is usually answered by their HR or benefits team rather than by the insurer.

Individuals buy directly when they want cover that is not tied to a job, or when an employer's scheme is not enough. Individual policies are underwritten on your own circumstances, which means medical questions and, often, a longer application.

There is a third group: people who have left a job and want to keep cover going. Some group schemes allow this, some do not, and the terms change when they do. Anyone in that position needs to ask before the employment ends, because the option usually closes with it.

Cover of this kind is not means-tested and does not depend on benefits. It sits alongside whatever state support exists, and the two interact in ways that matter: some benefits are reduced by other income, and some payments count as income for those purposes¹². The guide to benefits sets out how that works.

Unum Dental and Dencover: the dental cover brands

Unum Dental and Dencover are the two trading names under which Unum sells dental cover¹. Both are brands of the same authorised firm, so a policy bought under either name is provided by Unum Limited.

Dental cover is a different product from protection insurance. It pays towards routine dental treatment, and sometimes towards more expensive work, in return for a monthly premium. It is not designed to replace income and does not pay out on illness in the way income protection does.

Because both names sit under one authorisation, the protection that applies if the firm fails is the same whichever brand you bought through. The FCA Register entry lists both trading names against the same reference number¹.

How to make a claim with Unum

Claims start with Unum rather than with a form you download in advance. You contact the claims team, tell them which policy or scheme you are claiming under, and they send you the paperwork for your type of cover.

Expect to provide your policy or scheme number, your personal details, and the account you want any payment paid into, because accepted claims are paid into the account you have given the insurer¹⁴. For an income protection claim you will also need medical evidence and information about your earnings and your job, since the benefit is calculated from your income.

If you are claiming under a group scheme arranged by an employer, the employer is usually involved: they confirm your employment, your salary and your absence. That can be the slowest part of a claim, so it helps to tell your HR or benefits contact at the same time as you contact Unum.

Claim form deadlines depend on your deferred period

The deadline that catches people out is not the deadline for telling Unum you are ill. It is the deadline for returning the completed form, and it runs from the end of your deferred period.

The deferred period is the waiting time at the start of a claim before benefit becomes payable. It is set when the policy is taken out, commonly to match how long an employer keeps paying full or part salary. Benefit is not paid for that waiting period, and the claim form is normally due once it ends.

That means two people with the same illness can have very different deadlines, because their deferred periods differ. A short deferred period means benefit starts sooner and the form is due sooner. A long one means a longer wait before anything is paid, and more time to complete the paperwork.

Missing the deadline can delay payment or, in the worst case, put the claim at risk. If you cannot get the form back in time, tell Unum before the deadline rather than after it. The general guide to protection insurance explains how deferred periods work across the market.

How Unum pays accepted claims

Accepted claims are paid into the account you gave the insurer when you claimed¹⁴. That is why the account details are part of the information requested at the start, and why a change of bank account during a claim needs to be reported.

Income protection benefits are usually paid as a regular monthly amount rather than a lump sum, and they continue for as long as the policy allows and you remain unable to work. Critical illness and life claims are normally paid as a single lump sum.

Payments can be affected by other income. Some state benefits are reduced by other payments a claimant receives, and the list of payments that reduce an award includes things such as Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, Maternity Allowance, New Style Employment and Support Allowance and the State Pension¹². Whether an insurer's benefit is reduced by other income depends on the terms of the policy, which can include set-off provisions. Your policy wording is the document that decides this, not the benefit rules.

Rehabilitation and claims support

Insurers of this kind often provide more than money. Rehabilitation support, such as help returning to work or adjusting a role, is a common part of a group income protection scheme, and it is one reason employers buy the cover rather than simply holding a cash reserve.

Where a claim is being assessed, the practical support a claimant needs is usually help with the process itself: understanding what evidence is wanted, getting documents from an employer or a GP, and keeping the claim moving. Unum's claims team is the first point of contact for all of that.

Outside the insurer, free and impartial help exists. Citizens Advice runs a Help to Claim service for people filling in benefit claims, and Jobcentre staff can refer people to it¹⁵. Free debt advice is available from charities, and the guide to debt lists where to find it. MoneyHelper provides free, impartial guidance on money questions generally.

Complaints to Unum and the Financial Ombudsman Service

Complain to Unum first. The rules give a firm eight weeks to investigate a complaint and send a final response¹⁶. If no final response letter arrives within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with the one you get, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service⁴.

There is a deadline for that step: you need to bring the complaint to the ombudsman within 6 months from the date on your final response⁵. Missing it can mean losing the right to have the ombudsman look at the complaint.

The service is free to consumers. Where it upholds a complaint, it can require a firm to pay compensation, up to a maximum of £430,000 for complaints referred on or after 1 April 2024 about acts or omissions by firms on or after 1 April 2019⁶. Most complaints involve far smaller sums, but the limit is the ceiling on what the ombudsman can award.

Complaints about a claims management company, rather than about the insurer, go the same way: the ombudsman can look at the result of a claim or the fees charged¹⁸. The guide to consumer protection explains the wider complaints system.

How your cover is protected if an insurer fails

If an insurer goes bust, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme can step in. For income protection insurance, also called permanent health insurance or long-term disability insurance, claims are protected in full if the firm failed on or after 3 July 2015, and at 90% if it failed before that date⁷. The same rule applies to term life insurance and critical illness insurance claims⁷.

That distinction matters because it is a date, not a judgement about the policy. A claim under a policy from a firm that failed after 3 July 2015 is protected at 100%; one from a firm that failed earlier is protected at 90%⁷. Professional indemnity insurance claims follow the same pattern⁷.

Not everything is covered. Credit insurance and marine insurance claims are not eligible for FSCS protection⁷. Compulsory general insurance bought through a failed broker or financial adviser is protected in full⁷. For failures between 1 December 2001 and 31 December 2009, the scheme protected 100% of the first £2,000 and 90% of the remainder⁷.

There is also a disclosure rule to know about. Policyholders are not protected by the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 for mid-term information disclosures, so an insurer may reject a claim even if the policyholder took reasonable care¹⁹. That is why changes in circumstances during a policy are worth reporting.