Friendly Shield

Unique protection for you – simple, affordable and quick to apply!

What is Friendly Shield?

What would you do if you broke your arm or became ill and were unable to work for 2 months? Your employer may not cover your sick pay for that long or, if you’re self-employed, you wouldn’t receive any pay at all.

Now, let us introduce Friendly Shield!

Friendly Shield is a short term, accident protection and sickness policy designed to cover you and your family against the consequences of everyday accidents.

It provides several valuable benefits including:

  • It’s simple – apply in minutes with no medical questions to answer
  • It’s affordable – 3 cover levels to choose from, starting from just 33p per day
  • It’s quick – income benefit payable 14 days after an accident or sickness
  • Optional cover for your spouse and children
  • Access to our dental service that provides a dental chat helpline, emergency appointments, online check-up service and prescriptions. 
  • Immediate access to Friendly GP+ 24/7 for you and your family

Award Winning Cover!

Friendly Shield won Highly Commended in the Best New Product/Enhancement category at the Protection Review Awards 2024!
This award celebrates our commitment to innovation and enhancing protection cover for you.

Friendly Shield

Best New Product/Enhancement Highly Commended

Why National Friendly?

Award-Winning Service

We are an award-winning Friendly Society, (also known as a mutual), with over 155 years’ experience in providing protection insurance

Owned by Members

No shareholders - we are owned by our members, and we always work with their best interests in mind

Trusted and regulated

Fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, ensuring the highest standards

Financial security

Your policy is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme meaning more protection for you

Let’s set the scene: How Friendly Shield works

Simon has a gold Friendly Shield policy. He is a self-employed painter and decorator.

He is in a car crash and suffers 3 broken ribs, and as well breaks his arm and knee.

Friendly Shield pays £3,000 in fracture cover.

He is unable to work for just over 2 months due to his injuries.

Friendly Shield pays £4,500 in income benefit.

He needs to see a GP as his pain medication gives him heartburn.

Friendly Shield provides 24/7 access to a GP.

He damages a tooth in the accident and needs to seek an emergency dental appointment.

Friendly Shield finds an emergency dentist for him to speak with through Friendly Dentist+

He needs extensive physiotherapy to help his knee recover.

Friendly Shield pays £1,000 in rehabilitation benefit.

Friendly Shield pays Simon £8,500 during his two months of recovery and provides GP and dentist access.

* This example is based on a Friendly Shield Gold example where the claim is accepted as valid.

Key features of Friendly Shield

Our Friendly Shield Plan is available for UK residents aged 18 – 60. 
You can choose from 3 levels of cover from just 33p a day with optional cover for spouse and children!

Fracture cover

A lump sum benefit for fractures of bones up to £3,000

Income benefit

Short term accident income protection up to £2,250 per month for up to 3 months. You can extend this to cover sickness too

Accidental death benefit

A cash lump sum payable of up to £85,000 on accidental death

Natural death benefit

A cash lump sum payable on death of £2,500 after your policy has been in place for 2 years

Friendly GP+

24/7 access to a virtual GP for the whole family as standard

Friendly Dentist+

Our dental service that provides a dental chat helpline, emergency appointments, online check-up service and prescriptions. 

Rehabilitation benefit

A payment of up to £1,000 providing access to private facilities covering physical therapies i.e. acupuncture, physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic treatment, follow-up scans and tests and consultations

*Policy Summary and Conditions are for policies starting from 15 July 2025*

Choose Your Level

Income benefit – For up to 3 months
Fracture cover
Friendly Dentist+
Accidental death
Natural death
Additional sickness benefit*
Rehabilitation benefit
24/7 access to Friendly GP+ for the whole family
Bronze
Income benefit – For up to 3 months

£750

Fracture cover
£1,000
Friendly Dentist+
Accidental death
£45,000
Natural death
£2,500
Additional sickness benefit*
Rehabilitation benefit
Up to £1,000/year
24/7 access to Friendly GP+ for the whole family
Silver
Income benefit – For up to 3 months

£1,500

Fracture cover
£2,000
Friendly Dentist+
Accidental death
£85,000
Natural death
£2,500
Additional sickness benefit*
Rehabilitation benefit
Up to £1,000/year
24/7 access to Friendly GP+ for the whole family
previous next

*Cover for sickness can be added for a small extra cost

NEW Friendly Dentist+ Service

In response to customer research about access to dental services, we’ve optimised our Friendly Shield product to now include Friendly Dentist+ as standard! 
 
Take your dental care to the next level, now included in Friendly Shield policies from 15 July 2025.  
 

Key features include:

  • Unlimited around the clock access to a dental chat helpline: connect with qualified dentists for trusted advice and guidance. By uploading photos and videos, seek a second opinion and personalised diagnosis and prescription (paid by you) within 24 hours. 

  • Expert-led videos on dental health: Tips and best practices to keep your smile healthy, from brushing techniques to lifestyle tips for oral care.

  • Smart educational articles: Easy-to-read articles written by dental experts, designed to give you practical advice on maintaining your oral health.

  • Emergency online dental appointments: fast virtual support when urgent issues arise.

  • Help finding in-person emergency treatment: our dentists assist with local clinic sourcing*.

  • Symptom checker tool: you can check issues and get guided next steps.

  • Video call examination: a video examination using any smartphone camera to detect dental issues and problems.

  • 10% discount on cosmetic dental treatments: such as teeth whitening, straightening and at-home oral care kits.

Free access to Friendly GP+

Our virtual GP service, Friendly GP+, is a free added benefit to your policy which can be accessed over the phone or online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week which provides you and your family access at any time, day or night.

This means you always have easy access to a doctor when you need help.

  • 24/7 unlimited GP telephone consultations
  • Video consultations
  • Private prescriptions
  • Open referrals
  • Physiotherapy
  • Counselling
  • Money & debt advice
  • Legal information & support

How our members rate Friendly GP+

Our members have rated the service:

100% overall satisfaction

100% for the overall experience they received as excellent, very good or good

100% recommended

100% agreed they would recommend Friendly GP to a friend or colleague

5 star rated

100% rated the helpline as 5 stars or 4 stars

Data taken from reviews between January and May 2024.

Your questions answered

To apply for a policy, you must be:

  • Aged between 18 and 60 when the policy starts
  • Working and living in the UK (this doesn’t include the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man)
  • Working at least 16 hours a week
  • Able to pay for the policy from a UK bank account
  • Registered with a UK doctor with access to at least the last 2 years of your medical records

No, we won’t ask any medical or health related questions, which makes your application quick and simple, and acceptance is guaranteed regardless of your medical history.

If you choose to add sickness cover to your policy, you won’t be able to claim income benefit for any conditions you have been treated for in the past 18 months.

The different types of benefit have different waiting periods. Please see the Policy Conditions or Policy Summary for more details.

No claims for income benefit or fracture cover will be paid if the claim event occurred less than 7 days into your policy.

The policy pays an income benefit from day 15 of any covered illness or injury. 

Please see the Policy Conditions or Policy Summary for details of other limitations.

 

We cover a wide list of occupations however unfortunately there are some we aren’t able to cover.

To find out if we’ll be above to provide cover, please use our online quote tool or call our UK Friendly Customer Service team on 0333 014 6244 or request a call back.

Our Friendly GP+ service provides you and your family with peace of mind that you can access a GP at any time, day or night. You have access to this service as soon as your policy is set up.

The policyholder will also have access to Friendly Dentist+, our dental service that provides a dental chat helpline, emergency appointments, online check-up service and prescriptions.

We’ll give the full details on how you can access it when you take out a policy or you can go to our Existing Members page to find out more.

Any other questions?

Don’t delay – find out how Friendly Shield can protect you and your family today!

If you need help or have any questions, please contact our friendly UK based team today on 0330 221 1013 or request a call back.

We’re here from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays.

Important Information

  • You won’t be covered for unemployment or for claims lasting more than 3 months
  • To be covered, accidents have to result in an impact injury
  • Every 3 years we will review your premium and could change the cost of your cover.  Sickness Cover add-on: Any conditions you have been treated for in the past 18 months won’t be covered in the income benefit.
  • *Our dental team will make reasonable efforts to help you find and arrange an appointment with a local clinic for in-person care. However, we cannot guarantee appointment availability, timing, or acceptance, as these depend on 3rd party clinic capacity and discretion.

Apply online right now

It takes less than 5 minutes to apply.

Need advice? Let us help

Our friendly team can talk you through your options to help you to decide what level of cover is best for you. We’re here from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays.