What if the worst happened to you? Have you the right cover to keep your family out of financial disaster?

Video: Simon Read looks at a new campaign to raise awareness about the financial emotional damage that long-term illness or accident can cause

Two NHS staff walk with an elderly patient outside St Thomas' Hospital on October 13, 2011 in London, England. (Oli Scarff | Getty Images)

A major new campaign launched this week to raise awareness about the financial and emotional damage that long-term illness or accident can cause a family and its finances.

Called Seven Families, it is backed by the charity Disability Rights UK and many of Britain’s leading insurance companies.

But, crucially, the campaign will hand financial help to seven families for a year, seven families where the main breadwinner has been forced out of work by an accident or illness and not had any insurance payout.

Under the campaign the families will get a monthly payment equivalent to what would have happened if they’d had the right cover.

But what is the right cover? We talked to an expert to find out.

Louise Colley, protection director at Aviva, says the right cover is affordable and can make a huge difference to families hit by an accident or a medical disaster.

“People should ask themselves what would happen to financial dependents if the worst were to happen, whatever it may be.

“How long would you or your family be able to get by? How long do you think you could survive, paying the mortgage or rent with no income coming in? The average family can only get by for around two months in the event of a financial shock.”

She points out that one in three of us could get cancer. But most of us have what she calls ‘optimism bias’, which means we think it won’t happen to us.

“I meet with many families who have has to claim and they all say the insurance payout has made a huge difference. Without protection insurance people can be put into financial difficulty.

Many people are put off by the cost of cover but Louise says: “People think protection cover is very expensive, but it’s not. Policies can start from just a tenner a week.”

To find out more about different kinds of protection cover watch the video of our interview with Louise Colley.