Oversea posting and womens insurance 25 November 2010 at 9:11PM in UK armed forces MoneySaving 6 replies 1.2K views

peteuk

We are getting close to an overseas posting, so my wife informed her insurance company that we will be moving.

However they have said that she needs to be a resident in the UK for the policy to be valid.

Ok its only a small amount she pays but its a specialist female health insurance. She has built up a good bonus over the years, now the company want to cancel it with no benefits and have even stated that should she renew on her return that she would have lost he bonus for paying over the last X years.

Any suggestions?

McKneff

Sorry, i dont understand what you are saying re the insurance.
If she in only paying a small amount, isnt that tocover insurance against an illness or something.
Its insurance , not a savings account so where is the 'bonus' coming from.
What are the benefits you mention that she wont get.

13Kent

Technically you will still be uk residents as you still pay tax etc and are still eligible to claim things like child benefit etc so you could try to argue the point that the government still see you as a Uk resident. The problem is a lot of the time that the computer says no as they can only deal with UK postcodes, as soon as you don't have a uk postcode in your address they see you as no longer a UK resident. It is possible to use the Ruislip BFPO depot postcode on the address after the bfpo address (but bfpo are discouraging this at the moment), or for some companies that don't deliver to BFPO we still have redirection active from our old address and use that address and things get redirected no problem. Some companies can by-pass the computer and process things by hand instead, but some operators just repeat over and over that the computer won't accept it so there is nothing they can do. Maybe speaking to a manager may help.

However I'm not sure where you would stand re insurance though as if you wanted to make a claim and you don't fulfil their criteria for where you live then they may refuse to pay out.

There was a thread on here a little while ago about the disadvantages of forces life and how it affects people re credit rating etc, maybe there will be a post on there that might be helpful. Sorry don't know how to post a link, but it is on page 2, and the title is "Armed forces Personnel - tell the MOD about it's effect on your finances". Sorry not to be more help - it can be quite frustrating trying to tell banks etc that you are technically still a UK resident, paid by the government and still eligible for all the taxation etc but their computers just don't recognise a BFPO address.

Hope you manage to sort it out.

peteuk

McKneff wrote: »

Sorry, i dont understand what you are saying re the insurance.
If she in only paying a small amount, isnt that tocover insurance against an illness or something.
Its insurance , not a savings account so where is the 'bonus' coming from.
What are the benefits you mention that she wont get.

Sorry for the confussion it is a well womens health insurance so if she were to be diagnosed with breast or ovian cancer the insurance would pay out.

It is loaded in a way that the more years you have been paying it, the company give you a loyality bonus.

The F factor isnt the fact she wont be covered for the two years it the fact that the company dont hold the loyality bonus...

peteuk

13Kent wrote: »

. Maybe speaking to a manager may help.

We are currently in the process of it running through the complaints procedure. At first the manager thought we were leaving for good, but when we told him I was still be paid into a UK bank account and paying UK taxes he had to go away and double check.

We will await the complaints procedure....

Cheers for the advice I am sure I can use it of other things.

Trying_to_be_good

You won't be a UK resident if you're overseas, despite the advice above, but the negative publicity generated for any company disadvantages Service personnel (or their families) due to their Service life is considerable - hopefully they'll see sense before then and honour the policy whilst you're overseas and on your return.

samm1551

Trying_to_be_good wrote: »

You won't be a UK resident if you're overseas, despite the advice above, but the negative publicity generated for any company disadvantages Service personnel (or their families) due to their Service life is considerable - hopefully they'll see sense before then and honour the policy whilst you're overseas and on your return.

You are incorrect. For service personnel if you are posted overseas you are on sovereign soil, and therefore classed as a UK resident. Hence the ability to vote (albeit vua post or online).

There should be no reason why this man's wife cannot continue with the insurance policy. The only stipulation you may find is that his wife would have to return to the UK for treatment, which may have happened anyway dependant on where in the world the op was posted.