Total Permanent Disability is one of the ‘sweep up’ benefits on a Critical illness policy. The benefit pays if you are totally and permanently disabled, which can be very hard to achieve when you read the wording. It also can operate of two different definitions of occupation – either your own occupation or a list of “work tasks”. If you’re a desk jockey it should be Own occupation, but check.
The exclusion on Income Protection is probably more of a risk to be honest.
A prolapsed disc is likely to be an exclusion in most providers for these benefits for a period. 2 year symptom free might get you standard rates if you hadnt had time off work, but you are probably looking at 5 years or maybe 10 for some.
Having the cover is more important and the vast majority of CI claims are for cancer. If you are symptom free you can always look to rebroke it in a couple of years and your adviser will get another wedge of commission too.