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Most notably, Unum will now consider providing cover for employees who, prior to taking out the insurance, have had a heart attack.

It will also offer cover for people who have had a range of other potentially serious illnesses, such as cancer, paraplegia, back pain and diabetes.

Andrew Potterton, chief medical underwriter for Unum, said these changes had been made as the insurer had looked at the actual behaviour of the potential client, choosing those who had shown a willingness to keep on working. He said: “People have heart attacks but it is ridiculous to say this is the end of someone’s working life. If someone is at the top of their career then they are more likely to go into work however we found those at the lower end of the socio-economic scale were more likely to have negative feelings about working, thereby making them a greater risk.

“Income protection has always been considered one of the most difficult areas to underwrite and the penetration among the working population is less than 10 per cent. This needs to be improved and the industry must break out of stagnation mode.”

Mr Potterton also confirmed Unum now allows significant benefit changes without underwriting, called ‘Once and done’. This means, for the majority of cases, once Unum has underwritten and accepted the risk, it will allow the benefit to change each year on the same terms without further underwriting.

He said: “All of the changes we have made are founded on sensible analysis of our claims experience and the use of the new application form.

“An additional benefit of the new form is that Unum can now get cover in place within just a week of receiving the application form, as there is no routine medical evidence requirements, regardless of the salary to be insured

“We are continuing to explore other ways to ease the underwriting experience, for example by gathering application data or info by telephone or even in a worksite interview.”

Mr Potterton said the change would include a bespoke service for senior executives to help facilitate their access to higher levels of benefit.