If you are declined for life insurance, ask the insurer why, check whether the letter says declined or postponed, and ask where it would refer you before you apply anywhere else. A decline is one insurer's decision on one application, and your next step depends on its reason.

Would you rather talk it through? Leave a number in the request box here and a call from an FCA-authorised broker follows, free of charge. The broker can approach insurers for you, but nobody can promise an offer.

Can you find out why you were declined?

Yes; ask in writing. In a voluntary agreement published by BIBA, Explaining underwriting decisions (signatories as at March 2021), the signatory insurers say: "On a customer’s request insurers will explain what information was used to make the decision and the reason(s)." It applies only to the insurers that signed, so ask whether yours did.

There is also a legal route: a subject access request, under which you can ask an organisation whether it holds your personal information and for a copy. You need no solicitor or special wording; an email or letter to the insurer asking for the personal information on your application will do. Whether the underwriter's notes come back depends on what the insurer holds, a point to raise with the broker on the free call-back.

  • How long. The ICO says "Organisations usually have one month to respond to a SAR." If you have made several requests or yours is complex, they can take up to two more months, but must tell you why within the first month. If they ask for ID, as the ICO would expect for health information, the month starts once they have it.
  • Pauses. The ICO's guide for organisations (updated 16 July 2026 for the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025) says: "If you ask for clarification, the one-month time limit pauses on the day you request it and resumes the day after you receive it."
  • Cost. Normally free. An organisation can charge a reasonable fee for its administrative costs if it thinks a request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’, or if you ask for further copies.
  • What comes back. Your personal information rather than whole files: "You can only get your personal information that’s contained in the documents." The reply should also say where the information came from and how to ask for a correction.

If the reply looks incomplete, the ICO's advice is to complain to the insurer first, listing the information you think is missing.

Declined or postponed: what each means for your next step

In Legal & General's leaflet Underwriting explained (W10188 09/25), "No cover offered" applies where the insurer judges the risk too high and "likely to remain so". The leaflet says this is usually reserved for serious medical conditions that are current or recent, but other risk factors may lead to it. A postponement can follow a recent serious medical event such as a heart attack or cancer, ongoing medical investigations or a wait for an operation, in which case the insurer says it will tell you when it can look at a new application.

On those definitions, a postponement is about timing and a decline is a view on the risk itself. LV='s high-risk life insurance guide (dated 27 April 2026) says a decline is more likely with a newly diagnosed or unstable condition, a history of serious illness, a job with particularly high levels of risk, or several risk factors together. It adds that "refusal isn’t always permanent", since some insurers postpone and invite a new application later, particularly if health improves. If you were postponed, ask what would need to change, and when.

Separate pages cover heart conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, cancer and mental health. If a GP report was part of the decision, medical evidence and GP reports explains when insurers ask for one.

What a signatory insurer should tell you: the BIBA agreement

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) publishes An Agreement on access to protection insurance for people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities (renewed from 21st January 2023). Where a signatory insurer has made a reasonable decision, on reliable evidence, to refuse someone with a pre-existing medical condition who applied directly, the agreement sets out what that person should be told:

  • that the refusal is because the case falls outside that particular insurer's underwriting criteria;
  • clearly, that cover suited to their needs may still be available by referral to another firm or a signposting service;
  • the contact details of that firm or service.

Your details should not go to anyone else until you have agreed. The firm you are referred to is meant to be a "specialist firm": in the agreement's definition, FCA-regulated, with relevant expertise, capacity with insurers and an appetite for these cases.

If your letter said none of this, ask whether the insurer signed and whom it would refer you to. BIBA calls the undertakings non-binding, and they are written for people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities, so if you were refused for another reason, ask whether they apply. A referral is one route; this page's form is another, and you can ask whoever rings whether they place cases like yours. Life insurance with a medical condition shows how decisions differ between insurers.

Is guaranteed-acceptance over-50s cover a fallback?

It can be, for some readers aged 50 or over, if the limits suit. These plans ask no health questions, so an earlier decline is no bar. LV= lists guaranteed acceptance among its alternatives, with accidental death benefit policies and employer group life cover, and says they "may offer lower levels of cover or in some cases cost more".

Legal & General's Over 50s Fixed Life Insurance policy summary (QGI12836 11/2025) shows one insurer's version. It guarantees acceptance without medical questions for applicants aged 50 to 80 who are UK residents and spent at least 183 days of the last tax year living here. On that plan:

  • the maximum cash sum is £10,000, and because it is fixed, inflation will reduce its buying power;
  • premiums stop at age 90, and depending on how long you live, you may pay more in premiums than the cash sum;
  • the cash sum is paid if you die after one year; in the first year premiums are refunded instead, unless the death is accidental, when full cover is paid;
  • it is not designed to pay for a whole funeral, and does not guarantee to.

Other plans set their own rules. Guaranteed acceptance life insurance explains how they work, and the best life insurance over 50 sets providers side by side.

Do you have to mention the decline on your next application?

Answer each question you are asked accurately. Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, your duty is to take reasonable care not to give the insurer a misrepresentation. Whether you took that care is judged "in the light of all the relevant circumstances", and the Act's examples of what may count include "how clear, and how specific, the insurer's questions were". Dishonesty is always treated as a failure of that care.

So if an application form asks about a previous decline, the accurate answer includes yours. A broker can go through a given insurer's questions with you, free, before anything is submitted. If an answer turns out wrong, the insurer's remedy turns on whether you were careless, or deliberate or reckless, as what you must disclose explains; can a life insurance company refuse to pay shows how that plays out at claim time, and medical questions for life insurance covers what applications ask.

Keep the decline letter and any reply. When you feel ready to look again, the call-back request on this page connects you with an FCA-authorised broker at no cost; what you do after that is up to you. What underwriting means explains how insurers weigh an application; the health and underwriting guides gather the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Can you be declined for life insurance because of your weight?

You can be. Legal & General's leaflet says a high BMI, for example above 30, may lead to a raised premium or, in certain circumstances, to no offer of cover. Life insurance and BMI explains how build is assessed.

Does one decline mean every insurer will say no?

Not necessarily. BIBA's agreement frames a refusal as "outside of the underwriting criteria of that particular Insurer", and each insurer sets its own criteria. Another may decide differently, though nobody can promise it will.

How long should I wait to reapply after a postponement?

Ask the insurer if its letter does not say. Legal & General, for one, says it tells a postponed applicant when it can consider a new application.

Sources

  • British Insurance Brokers’ Association, An Agreement on access to protection insurance for people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities (signatories as at 27 September 2023), read 21 October 2026. biba.org.uk
  • BIBA (Access to Insurance group), Explaining underwriting decisions where an insurer offers non standard terms or is unable to offer cover (signatories as at March 2021), read 21 October 2026. biba.org.uk
  • Information Commissioner’s Office, Getting copies of your information (SAR) (latest update listed 17 April 2024), read 21 October 2026. ico.org.uk
  • Information Commissioner’s Office, What to expect after making a subject access request (23 May 2024), read 21 October 2026. ico.org.uk
  • Information Commissioner’s Office, Getting a response to your subject access request read 21 October 2026. ico.org.uk
  • Information Commissioner’s Office, What to do if you don't get a response or you're unhappy with it read 21 October 2026. ico.org.uk
  • Information Commissioner’s Office, A guide to subject access (last updated 16 July 2026), read 21 October 2026. ico.org.uk
  • Legal & General, Underwriting explained (W10188 09/25), read 21 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • Legal & General, Over 50s Fixed Life Insurance Policy Summary (QGI12836 11/2025, direct version), read 21 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com
  • LV=, High-risk life insurance guide: How to secure cover (dated 27 April 2026), read 21 October 2026. lv.com
  • legislation.gov.uk, Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, sections 2 and 3, read 21 October 2026. legislation.gov.uk