25% will get serious illness

ONE in four people will at some stage suffer from a serious illness, such as a heart attack or cancer, while one in 10 will die before they reach retirement age, new figures show.

The figures are part of a claims analysis by life assurance company Irish Life that has paid out more than €1 billion in death, specified illness and income protection claims to 30,000 families over the past five years.

In the last year alone the firm paid out more than €230m to almost 8,000 families, according to an analysis of its claims book.