Over 65 life insurance.

Annisele

Yes, that sort of agreement would be detrimental to your credit score.

If half the debt is in your name, then half the debt is your debt - and your credit score would be affected by your own debt. Can you afford to pay the half that's in your name?

Regarding your original question, dunstonh has already answered it - most providers will provide life cover beyond the age of 65. The rules of this forum prevent us from giving you advice as to which provider to choose (I'm also not yet convinced that life cover is necessarily appropriate). If you want advice, then you should seek that advice from a financial adviser - he'll be able to look at all of your circumstances and come to a recommendation.

Rev

Thanks.

I'm aware the debt is now mine, but I didn't create it, she was really struggling so I offered to do her a favour. I'm making the monthly payment but it is taking a huge dent out of my pocket. I have zero problem helping out, it is my mother after all. But it will quickly reach the point of her having to take the debt back since I'm not going to be able to afford it much longer.

We've been to see a financial advisor, he said he couldn't tell us names of companies as his boss would see that as him 'selling' or recommending and he's apparently not allowed to do that.

If life cover isn't appropriate please give me your opinion as to what is. If you've got a suggestion in which she can consolodate all the debt, have a single monthly affordable payment and not have that loan taken from her estate should the worst happen and won't leave me with a god awful credit score then please pass it along, because we're both at a loss, as is the CAB (And please don't think I'm being sarcastic there, I mean it, genuinely).

Annisele

Hmmm. I can't work out how to respond to your post without risking offending you, but from the sounds of it you'd prefer that people tried to help even if they did end up being rude. I'm not deliberately trying to be mean - I really am trying to help, even though it may not sound like it!

Frankly, I think that your interests and your mother's interests conflict. I guess (I don't know!) that life cover would benefit you alone, and give her no benefit whatsoever. Similarly, being able to pass on her estate free of debt would only benefit your mother's heirs, and not your mother. If she can't afford her debts, then I think that she needs to think of ways to pay her creditors rather than ways to benefit her heirs.

I don't think that you really have a life assurance problem at all - I think that you have a debt problem. You might therefore get more helpful responses if you post on the debt free wannabee boards rather than the life assurance one.

If a financial adviser has refused to recommend a life policy, then that's probably because he thinks that a life policy would be unsuitable. Financial advisers who go around recommending unsuitable things end up getting fired and/or fined by the FSA; I don't blame him for not wanting to risk that.

Even if I was authorised to give financial advice (which I'm not), I don't think I'd be able to give advice based on the limited information you've provided. I'm not asking you to post any more details on a public forum, but I'll list the other things I'd want to know to try and give you an idea of some of the options that might be open to you. This list is not in any way exhaustive.

• How old is your mother? It is possible that equity release might be an option for her. I would usually say that equity release should be an absolute last resort - and if she's considering it, she should certainly get independent advice. However, she might have reached the point where the last resort is the only sensible option. Equity release might allow her to pay off all of her debts and remain in her house until her death - but it would also put a serious dent in her estate, and there might not be any inheritance at all for her heirs.
• What is the total of her debts, and the total of her income? How much is her house worth? It might be sensible for her to sell her house, use the proceeds to repay her debts, and move into rented accommodation.
• I don't understand why CAB said that it wasn't sensible to take out a loan secured against her house unless there was an insurance policy in place. I'm guessing that whatever it is that led them to say that is highly relevant to the "what should you do" question - but I'm struggling to even guess what the reason might be. Do you live in your mother's house?
• How much do you earn? Do you have a mortgage/have any equity in a property? How come you could originally cover the payments but you're now struggling? I don't think that it really matters that the debt you owe was originally owed by your mother. You promised to pay it back, so you have to make the payments. I think that you might have to consider your mother's situation separately from your own - the right solution for you might be very different from the right solution for her.

Good luck!

Rev

I was basically saying, I'm not offended and I don't think you're being mean.

Right, this might be a long one...

Okay, the situation, she lives on a pension and DLA, I am her carer and that's my only income. I've been her carer since I was six. There was a situation a few years back that wasn't covered by the house insurance so needed paying for. She had a bank account and went over her over draft to pay, the bank then started putting charges on, so all her income went into paying that back, in the mean time everything else had to go on cards, I live with her and obviously took over the bills I could manage, but if you have any idea about carers allowance, you'll know it's the same as being on the dole, only it's not classed as a benefit so I have to pay my own medical etc, anyway even with my help she struggled. Fast forward to now and it's out of control. She can be secretive and didn't actually tell me how much debt she was in until she couldn't cope, which is when I took out some cards and transferred stuff to my name.

She's 70, equity release isn't an option as they take the house on her death. Yes, I understand she wont be here to care but as I said before, I've been her carer since I was 6, they take the house on her death and I'm instantly homeless with zero income. Sound like something you'd want to do to your kids?

Selling the house would be an option, one which I've put forward, but my mum's lived here since she was a kid, she doesn't want to have to sell her life time home for the sake of £6000.

Why could we afford them then, and not now? Because the debt gets bigger, interest bumps it up, plus as I said she was putting general living expenses on card until a few months ago.

It was a financial advisor (along with the CAB) who suggested taking a loan on the house, but getting insurance to make sure it's paid should anything happen to her. He's just not allowed to give out specific names.

The CAB said it wasn't advisable to take out a loan on the house without insurance to cover it should anything happen to her because obviously the house will be sold to cover the loan. Which is exactly the same position as equity release.

Actually, now that's typed up I realise it is me who will, in the long run benefit, and in all honesty I couldn't give a crap about the house, I'd rather she sell it, pay the debts and have cash to spend on herself. But it's her house. She's adamant she wont do anything that means the house wont be left to me.

Also, if she did, she'd struggle with rent, average rent for the area is around £425 per month (I know because my uncles house hunting and I've been looking on the net for him), she only gets just over £500. And she'd get no help with the rent as according to the housing trust (or whatever it's called - sorry not too sure), by selling the house she's voluntarily making herself homeless, if someone does that, it's not their problem.

Annisele

Ah, OK, in that case she does have a dependant - you! And that explains why CAB felt that life assurance would be a good idea.

I think you'd be better posting on the debt free wannabee board, or possibly the benefits board. The people here tend to know about insurance, but I don't think that your problem is actually an insurance one. (To illustrate my own ignorance on the subject, my first thought on reading your post was that your mother couldn't possibly be getting DLA at 70. A quick google has shown me I'm wrong, but there's a good chance I'm wrong about lots of other things regarding benefits and debt).

Does your mother's bank know that she's experiencing financial difficulties? If it does, then it has a duty to deal with her "sympathetically and fairly" - but if it doesn't know, there is little it can do.

If your mother is 70, already owns her own home, and doesn't want to move, then shredding her credit score (as you put it) might not hurt her all that much. If she doesn't want to borrow any more money, then it might not matter if she ends up in a position where she can't borrow any more.

Rev

Ah, I didn't realise I was a dependant, I assumed since I have my own income I'm not a dependant.

The bank know and she has tried to make a repayment plan on countless occasions, they have each time asked for either a ridiculous amount per month (over £100 - that would be perfectly manageable were it not for the cards on top - a loan would give her a repayment of just over £120 per month, which is managable) or said they want the whole debt repaid.

They also call her 4-5 times a day, each time she gets stressed, she's got several conditions that can be induced by stress, so I basically said they're not to ring her any more, all contact must be made by post. The CAB have been trying for the last three days to sort out a payment plan, they're getting nowhere.

She has no qualms with ruining her credit score as she's not planning on borrowing anything, but since half the debt is in my name, we'd not be much better off, the point of the loan is to wipe the whole thing and leave a single monthly payment, which I've told her I am happy to help towards.

It's a frustrating situation, which isn't doing her health any good. I hope we can get it resolved sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the advice.

Annisele

You're a dependant in the sense that your income is dependant on your mother (because you wouldn't get carer's allowance if you weren't caring for her) and she provides your accommodation.

If the calls didn't stop when your mother asked for them to stop, then it might be worth making a complaint to the bank - if it knows the circumstances, it shouldn't be harassing her.

It sounds as though a loan without life assurance might be a solution. You could then use the money that you would have paid towards the life assurance to reduce the debt faster. Certainly you'd have a problem if your mother died before the debts were paid off - but if she doesn't have life assurance already, then that part of the situation wouldn't have changed.

jamesd

Rev, you wouldn't need to make an arrangement that would affect your credit score. You are one of her creditors and one of the people that CCCS could be paying out of her single payment.