How the figures are worked out

Every calculator calls one engine of pure functions, fed by two files: the parameter file of state rates and tax thresholds, and the ONS life tables. No amount is typed into a page. The parameter file was last checked against its sources on 7 November 2026; the life tables are the 2022-2024 edition, published by the ONS on 10 December 2025. Updates are made by hand when the DWP publishes new rates and when the ONS publishes a new edition; nothing is fetched automatically.

1. Life cover needed

Need = mortgage balance + other debts + funeral budget + yearly income needed × number of years + lump sums for children. From it come savings the family could use, death in service, personal cover already held and, where it is due, the full Bereavement Support Payment: for married couples and civil partners £3,500 plus 18 × £350 with a child for whom Child Benefit is paid, otherwise £2,500 plus 18 × £100; for couples living together, the higher rate with such a child and nothing without (GOV.UK, Bereavement Support Payment, DWP, Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027 (GOV.UK)). The calculator assumes a claim within 3 months and a qualifying National Insurance record. No interest or inflation is applied to the income.

2. Chance of a payout

For a person aged x, the chance of dying within a term of n years is 1 − (1 − q_x)(1 − q_x+1)…(1 − q_x+n−1), where q is the ONS probability of dying before the next birthday, for the sex and nation chosen (ONS, National life tables: UK, 2022 to 2024, ONS, National life tables: England (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland published alongside)). A fractional year uses the same rate for the fraction. Example: q₄₀ for men in the United Kingdom is 0.168%, and the chance of dying within 25 years from 40 is 12%. Ages above 100 use the rate at 100. The tables are period tables: they apply today’s death rates to the future, with no allowance for improvement, so they overstate the risk slightly for long terms. They cover the whole population, not insured lives.

3. Over 50s and whole of life

The break-even age is the age at which the premium typed in, times the number of months, equals the sum assured; if premiums stop at a set age before that, there is no break-even. The chance of reaching that age uses the same tables. Life expectancy is the ONS e_x. No premium is ever suggested.

4. Sick pay and New Style ESA

Weekly pay = monthly pay × 12 ÷ 52. Statutory Sick Pay from 6 April 2026 is the lower of £123.25 and 80% of average weekly earnings, from the first day, for up to 28 weeks (GOV.UK, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), GOV.UK, Sickness absences that start before and end on or after 6 April 2026). Company sick pay is never below SSP in the weeks SSP is due. When company and statutory pay end, New Style ESA follows at the assessment rate (£75.65 under 25, £95.55 from 25) for 13 weeks, then £95.55 in the work-related activity group, which stops after 365 days, or £145.90 in the support group, with no end date (GOV.UK, Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)). The engine assumes the National Insurance conditions are met and that ESA starts the week company pay ends. Self-employed people get no SSP and go straight to ESA. Income protection is added from the end of the deferred period. Amounts are before tax.

5. Inheritance tax on a payout

Payout to the estate: inheritance tax at 40% on the estate above the nil-rate band of £325,000, plus the residence band of up to £175,000 when a home goes to children or grandchildren, reduced by £1 for every £2 above £2,000,000; nothing when everything goes to a spouse or civil partner (GOV.UK, Inheritance Tax). The extra tax is the difference with and without the payout. Policy in trust: assumed outside the estate. Transferred bands, gifts and reliefs are not modelled.

6. Funeral Expenses Payment

Burial or cremation fees in full plus other costs up to £1,000, or £120 when the person had a funeral plan (GOV.UK, Funeral Expenses Payment). Eligibility is not tested.

7. Tests

Run on every build: the payout chance recomputed by hand for a man of 40 over 25 years; survival over zero years equal to one; SSP capped at the flat rate and at 80% of low earnings; the ESA phases in order with the 365-day limit; Bereavement Support Payment totals of £9,800 and £4,300, and nothing for a cohabiting couple without children; a repayment mortgage that reaches zero on its last month; GOV.UK’s inheritance tax example of a £500,000 estate. A failing test stops the build.

8. What is not modelled

• insurance prices, underwriting, exclusions and policy definitions, which differ between insurers;
• Universal Credit, the State Pension inherited from a spouse, and Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay;
• tax on sick pay and on ESA, occupational sick pay rules other than full and half pay, and linked periods of sickness;
• interest and inflation on a lump sum, mortality improvements, and the healthier mortality of insured lives.

Method version: 2026-11-07. A figure that looks wrong: contact.