Friends Life is extending its group cancer cover to companies with 50 employees or more.
When the benefit was launched in January 2015, a minimum of 100 employees were needed for a business to qualify for the cover.
However, the provider said after receiving a large amount of positive feedback from the market, it has decided to extend the policy.
Anna Spender, head of group protection proposition at Friends Life, said: "We were getting requests for quotes from smaller businesses and weren’t able to fulfil those requests. It became clear very quickly this is a benefit that SMEs are really interested in and I’m pleased that we’ve been able to react so quickly."
Group Cancer Cover was the first employer funded cancer-specific workplace benefit in the UK, according to Friends Life.
The benefit will pay a fixed amount of £25,000 ($37,223) to employees who are diagnosed with a cancer covered by the plan.
Policy definitions, however, apply and not all cancers are covered by the policy.
