Maximum benefit

Maximum benefit policies provide a fixed amount of money for each illness or injury to help pay for your pet’s treatment for as long as the money lasts.

Understanding maximum benefit insurance policies

Maximum benefit policies insure your pet for new medical illnesses and injuries. This means that any illness or injury they had before the policy started will not be covered.

Your pet is covered for each illness and injury until the maximum amount is reached, as long as the insurance policy remains in force and premiums are paid.

There is no time limit on reaching the amount. Once the full amount of benefit has been spent, the treatment of that particular illness or injury will not be covered again, and you would then be responsible for any future ongoing treatment costs for that particular illness or injury. Any new or unrelated condition will be covered up to the maximum condition benefit limit.

If your pet has received treatment for a particular illness which then appears in another part of the body at a later date, e.g. a different leg, ear or eye, many maximum benefit policies will view this as the same condition. This means that the maximum amount of money will only be available once, not for each time your pet has that particular illness or injury, even if that is in another part of the body. Insurers see these as recurring conditions related to the previous episode so will treat as one condition, for the duration of the policy.