Life insurance with diabetes is available in the UK for type 1 and type 2 alike, but each insurer decides for itself whether to offer cover and what to charge. Legal & General's guide (4 June 2026) puts it this way: "But life insurance for diabetics isn’t always straightforward, as each individual experiences the condition with a different level of severity."
How an insurer reads your own diabetes depends on details only you hold: the type, how it is treated, your latest HbA1c and any complications. To have yours looked at, complete the form on this page and keep those details to hand for the call. An FCA-authorised broker then phones, free, to discuss them and explain how the insurers it deals with tend to view diabetes like yours.
How insurers weigh type 1 and type 2 diabetes
Aviva's guide (published 1 October 2024, last updated 12 May 2026) sums up the starting point: "When you apply, insurers usually look at the type of diabetes you have, how it’s managed, your HbA1c levels, and your overall health." HbA1c is a blood test that, as Aviva explains, reflects your average blood sugar across the previous two to three months.
The type sets the pace. Legal & General says a type 1 application may need information from your GP before it decides, so a decision on the spot may not come, and describes cover for type 2 as often simpler to arrange, with a decision possibly made when you apply if there are no further complications. Aviva links type 1's usual need for lifelong insulin to the chance of higher premiums. The detail for each type, from HbA1c thresholds to a move onto insulin, is on life insurance with type 2 diabetes and life insurance with type 1 diabetes.
Whichever type you have, the two insurers' checklists ask for much the same things:
| Topic | Legal & General (4 June 2026) | Aviva (updated 12 May 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Date diagnosed and date of your most recent diabetic review | Diagnosis date and most recent diabetic review |
| Treatment | Whether you use insulin injections or an insulin pump | Insulin pump, injections, tablets or diet |
| Hospital | Any admissions, leaving out routine diabetic clinic visits | Any stays, leaving out routine diabetic clinic visits |
| Blood test | Latest HbA1c result | Latest HbA1c result |
| Complications and symptoms | Kidney or eye problems, abnormal urine tests; numbness, tingling or loss of feeling in fingers, toes or feet | Eye or kidney problems, abnormal urine tests; pain or numbness in hands or feet |
Diabetes UK, writing for people with diabetes (undated page, read 22 October 2026), widens the list to your medicines, cholesterol, blood pressure, and your height and weight, with the HbA1c result "normally from within the last year". How weight is judged has its own guide, life insurance BMI requirements.
Is life insurance more expensive for diabetics?
It can be. According to Diabetes UK, payments may be higher with diabetes, and the price also turns on how well it is managed, on heart problems, smoking, your HbA1c and any other conditions. Aviva says insurers treat diabetes as a pre-existing condition and may charge more, or alter a policy's terms, to reflect the added risk.
Better control can count for you later. The charity says a higher HbA1c may push monthly payments up, and that if your levels come down you can ask your provider to review the policy and may then pay less. It is firm that the targets to follow are your healthcare team's, never an insurer's.
What diabetes would add to your own premium depends on your results and on the insurer. For prices that reflect your own HbA1c and treatment, request a diabetes quote call with the form on this page; when the broker phones, without charge, those details are taken on the call and actual quotes can be talked through.
How do Legal & General, Aviva, Royal London and VitalityLife treat diabetes?
Legal & General asks its questions as you apply and tells you then, or shortly afterwards, whether it can offer a policy. It says there are cases where it cannot provide cover: it cannot help every smoker, or every customer with additional cardiovascular risks such as angina, a heart attack or a stroke. It may also want more from your GP if you are pregnant or your HbA1c points to high blood sugar.
Aviva says an insurer will consider how severe your diabetes is and how well controlled, and lists linked conditions it says insurers factor in, among them eye disease, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, diabetic foot problems and gastroparesis. It adds that an insurer may ask to see your medical records or arrange a medical examination.
Royal London sells a plan designed specifically for people with diabetes. Its Diabetes Life Cover page (undated, read 22 October 2026) describes cover for type 1 and type 2 that pays a sum on death or terminal illness within the plan's term. Applicants must be UK residents aged 18 to 88, the plan has to finish before your 90th birthday, and you supply an HbA1c result. As long as your condition is improving, it says a yearly HbA1c reading could bring monthly payments down by up to 40%, and its FAQ says that happens over a few years. The plan is not sold direct: "It's only available through a financial adviser."
VitalityLife's underwriting page is adviser material, marked for UK financial advisers only. Where it needs more evidence, it says, it may ask the applicant's GP for a targeted report, and "the TGPR provides detailed information related to a specific condition, for example diabetes or cancer, and not the applicant’s full medical history". The range of decisions an insurer can reach, from standard terms to a decline, is explained in what underwriting means.
What happens if you leave diabetes off the application?
Legal & General's question covers any contact about diabetes with a doctor, a nurse or another health professional during the last 5 years, and it says untruthful or inaccurate answers could invalidate a later claim and see the policy cancelled. Aviva warns that "Failing to provide accurate information could lead to your policy being cancelled or any claims denied", and that hiding diabetes "could even be considered fraud".
Those warnings rest on the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, whose section 2 makes it your duty to take reasonable care over what you tell an insurer, so that nothing you say misrepresents the facts. Section 5 sorts a misrepresentation that matters into one of two kinds, "deliberate or reckless" or "careless", and adds: "It is for the insurer to show that a qualifying misrepresentation was deliberate or reckless." What the insurer may then do differs by kind; what you must disclose explains the remedies, and the health questions on an application shows what is usually asked.
If an insurer turns you down because of diabetes
A refusal is that insurer's answer, not every insurer's. Diabetes UK notes that cover can be harder to find going direct or through comparison sites because of the condition, and suggests "It may help to go through a specialist insurance broker who work with insurance providers who are more likely to be able to help."
If you would like your diabetes history taken to more than one insurer after a refusal, the form on this page still applies: an FCA-authorised broker calls at no cost and can approach several of the insurers it deals with for you. No broker can guarantee that an insurer will offer cover.
The steps after being refused cover have their own guide, and getting cover with a health condition looks at the wider picture. Other kinds of cover are assessed separately: see critical illness cover if you have diabetes and income protection for diabetes.
For questions about diabetes itself, Diabetes UK runs a confidential helpline on 0345 123 2399 (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or 0141 413 5148 (Scotland), Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.
Frequently asked questions
How should someone with diabetes compare life insurers?
On the detail, not a league table: this site does not rank insurers for diabetes. Ask what each needs from your GP, how it treats complications such as kidney or eye problems, and whether a lower HbA1c later could bring the premium down.
Can you get life insurance with diabetes and high blood pressure?
Diabetes UK lists blood pressure readings among the information insurers want from people with diabetes, and says heart problems and other medical conditions also bear on the cost. The blood pressure side is covered in life insurance with high blood pressure.
Can you get mortgage protection with diabetes?
How an insurer would treat diabetes, or a high BMI, on a policy tied to your mortgage varies by insurer, and the broker can explain it for your own case when they ring, at no charge. Cover that asks no health questions is looked at in mortgage protection with no health questions.
Does life insurance pay out if you have diabetes?
Aviva describes its life cover as paying a lump sum if you die during the policy term. The risk to a claim lies in the application: Aviva warns that inaccurate information could lead to claims being denied, which is why full answers about your diabetes matter.
Whenever it suits you, completing the form on this page once leads to a call from a broker to discuss your diabetes and the cover you are thinking about; the call costs nothing, and whether you go further is your decision. The health and underwriting guides cover other conditions.
Sources
- Legal & General, Life insurance and diabetes (4 June 2026), read 22 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
- Aviva, Life insurance and diabetes (published 1 October 2024, last updated 12 May 2026), read 22 October 2026. aviva.co.uk
- Diabetes UK, Life insurance for people with diabetes (undated page), read 22 October 2026. diabetes.org.uk
- Diabetes UK, Diabetes UK Helpline (undated page), read 22 October 2026. diabetes.org.uk
- Royal London, Diabetes Life Cover (consumer web page, undated), read 22 October 2026. royallondon.com
- VitalityLife, Underwriting (adviser page for UK financial advisers, undated), read 22 October 2026. adviser.vitality.co.uk
- legislation.gov.uk, Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, sections 2 and 5, read 22 October 2026. legislation.gov.uk