If you serve with the RAF in Lincolnshire and you are buying a home around Sleaford, Lincoln, Grantham or North Hykeham, the protection you need is usually three overlapping policies: life cover to clear the mortgage if you die, critical illness cover to pay a lump sum if you are seriously ill, and income protection to replace your pay if you cannot work. The catch is that many off-the-shelf policies were never written with military life in mind, so the wrong policy can leave your family exposed at the exact moment it matters. This guide explains what to buy, what the Armed Forces already give you, and where standard cover falls short.
Our office is on Carre Street in Sleaford, a few miles from RAF College Cranwell, and we regularly help personnel from Cranwell, RAF Waddington and RAF Coningsby, as well as their families across the surrounding towns and villages. As former bank managers who now advise across the whole market, we look at your service history, posting patterns and existing MOD benefits before recommending anything.
What is mortgage protection, and why does it matter for RAF families?
Mortgage protection is not a single product. It is a small stack of insurance policies designed so that a death, a serious illness or a spell off work does not cost you your home. For service families the stakes are higher than average, because a posting or deployment can take the main earner away for months, and because a mortgage taken on a single military salary leaves little slack if that income stops. The three core policies are set out below.
| Policy | What it pays | When it typically pays |
|---|---|---|
| Life insurance | A lump sum, usually enough to clear the outstanding mortgage | On death (or terminal illness) during the policy term |
| Critical illness cover | A tax-free lump sum | On diagnosis of a defined serious illness such as cancer, heart attack or stroke |
| Income protection | A regular, tax-free monthly income | After an agreed deferred period, while you cannot work through illness or injury |
You can read more about each on our pages for life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection. Most families use a combination rather than a single policy.
Will a standard life insurance policy pay out if I die on active service?
Not always, and this is the single most important thing for serving personnel to understand. Many standard civilian life insurance policies contain a war risks or active service exclusion, which means the insurer can decline a claim if death results from military action, conflict or, in some cases, certain training. For a serving aviator, that exclusion can make an otherwise sensible policy fundamentally unsuitable.
There are two common ways round it. Some insurers will remove the exclusion and instead apply a higher premium, known as a loading, to reflect the occupation. As an illustration, a 50 per cent loading would turn a £20 monthly premium into £30. Other providers offer specialist policies written for the forces that keep worldwide cover in place without the war exclusion. The right answer depends on your role, your deployment likelihood and your budget, which is exactly the kind of comparison whole-of-market advice is for.
Do I still need life cover if the Armed Forces pay a death-in-service lump sum?
You probably still need some, but the Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) benefit changes how much. If you die in service, the scheme pays a tax-free lump sum to your nominated beneficiary, and the usual qualifying period is waived. The multiple depends on which scheme you are in.
| Scheme | Death-in-service lump sum | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| AFPS 15 (current scheme for most serving personnel) | 4 times final pensionable earnings | Tax-free |
| AFPS 05 | 4 times final pensionable earnings | Tax-free |
| AFPS 75 | 3 times representative pay for the rank | Tax-free |
As a worked example, if your final pensionable earnings were £40,000 and you are in AFPS 15, the death-in-service lump sum would be around £160,000. If your mortgage on a Sleaford or Grantham home is £180,000, that benefit covers most of it, so you may only need a smaller top-up policy rather than full cover for the whole balance. Filling in your Expression of Wish (AFPS Form 2) matters here, because it tells the scheme who should receive the money. The point is to avoid paying twice for protection you already have, while closing the gap that remains.
What does critical illness cover do for service personnel?
Critical illness cover pays a tax-free lump sum if you are diagnosed with one of the specific conditions listed in the policy, such as certain cancers, a heart attack or a stroke. Unlike life cover, it pays while you are alive, so it can clear or reduce the mortgage, fund adaptations to your home, or simply buy time while you recover or transition to a new role. Definitions and the list of covered conditions vary a lot between insurers, and some have updated their terms for the forces and reservists, so it is worth checking the wording rather than assuming all policies are equal.
How does income protection work alongside military sick pay?
Income protection replaces part of your income, tax-free, if illness or injury stops you working. You choose a deferred period (the wait before payments start, commonly 4, 8, 13 or 26 weeks), and payments continue until you can work again, the policy ends, or you reach the agreed limit. Serving personnel do receive continued pay during periods of sickness, so many set a longer deferred period to keep premiums down and use the policy to protect against the point where service pay would otherwise reduce or end, including a future medical discharge. If you leave the forces for civilian employment, income protection becomes even more important, because your safety net changes overnight.
How does frequent posting affect my protection and home insurance?
Moving every few years complicates two things. First, protection policies should be portable, meaning they stay with you and your mortgage rather than your address, so a posting from Waddington to elsewhere does not force you to reapply and risk a higher premium at an older age or after a health change. Second, if you buy a home and then get posted, you may end up letting it out, which changes your insurance needs. Standard home insurance may not cover a property you no longer live in, and a residential mortgage usually requires consent to let. We can flag both before they become a problem. Family protection insurance can also sit alongside the mortgage-focused cover to look after children and dependants more broadly.
Can Forces Help to Buy affect my protection planning?
Yes, indirectly, and it is worth understanding. Forces Help to Buy (also called Armed Forces Help to Buy) is a Ministry of Defence scheme that lets regular service personnel borrow an interest-free advance of salary, up to 50 per cent of annual salary and capped at £25,000, towards a deposit and associated costs such as solicitor and survey fees. It is normally repaid over up to 10 years and is applied for through JPA. Because the advance is repaid from your salary, it forms part of your monthly commitments, so income protection that keeps your pay flowing if you are off sick becomes more valuable, not less. You can estimate figures with our Armed Forces Help to Buy calculator, and read how we structure applications on our Armed Forces Help to Buy mortgages page.
How much does mortgage protection cost for RAF personnel?
There is no single price, because premiums depend on your age, health, whether you smoke, the amount and term of cover, and any occupation loading applied for military service. As a rule, decreasing life cover (which reduces in line with a repayment mortgage) is cheaper than level cover, and buying younger and in good health locks in a lower price. Where an insurer adds a loading for active service, that increase is the trade-off for removing the war exclusion, and it is usually money well spent for anyone likely to deploy. The honest position is that a properly built stack costs more than the cheapest single policy you could buy online, but it is far more likely to actually pay out. Our fees, including a discounted rate for Armed Forces and Blue Light Card holders, are set out on our fees page.
Who should be especially careful?
Reservists should check their cover closely, because some policies treat mobilisation differently from regular service, and terms have changed in recent years. Anyone approaching the end of their service should review protection before they leave, as civilian life removes the AFPS death-in-service safety net. And anyone who bought a policy years ago on a comparison site should check for a war exclusion they may not know is there. Equally, over-insuring is a real risk: if the AFPS lump sum already covers most of your mortgage, paying for full life cover on the whole balance is money wasted. The goal is the right cover, not the most.
Common questions
Does the MOD provide life cover, so I do not need my own?
The AFPS death-in-service lump sum is valuable, but it is tied to your service. If you leave, or if it does not fully cover your mortgage and family needs, a personal policy fills the gap. Many families use both together.
Will I be turned down for cover because I serve?
Rarely. More often an insurer will either apply a loading or a war exclusion, or offer a specialist forces policy. The key is to compare across the market rather than accept the first quote, which is where independent advice helps.
Can I get advice near RAF Cranwell or Waddington?
Yes. We are based on Carre Street in Sleaford, close to Cranwell, and we advise families across Lincoln, Grantham, North Hykeham and the surrounding area, in person, by phone or online to fit around duty.
Talk to a team that understands service life
Getting protection right for a service family is about matching cover to what the Armed Forces already provide, then closing the gaps without paying for anything twice. For clear, jargon-free mortgage protection advice built around your posting and your budget, contact us for a free, no-obligation conversation.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
