insurances not paying out

Anthillmob

based on something i saw on watchdog this evening about holiday insurance co's not paying out even though they didnt ask for the full medical history got me thinking....

about 11 years ago i took out a HSBC loan. i also took out the insurance to cover me if out of work etc., when i lost my job at the time i claimed only to be told the claim was invalid as i handt disclosed that i had arthritis and had first contacted the doctor the same year that i took out the loan.

now my bugbear back then was that i contacted the doctor because i though i had roken my finger and the diagnosis took a year to 2 years as my form of arthritis to my doctor at the time was a 'medical mystery'.

i went to the CAB who were no help whatsoever and so i lost out and had to make payments on the loan.

watching watchdog tonight however, surely if i had attended the doctor thinking my finger was broken which was then diagnosed say 2 years after taking out the loan i should have been within my rights to be covered by the insurance as i didnt know it was arthritis at the time of taking out the loan.

any ideas if anything can be done so many years down the line? im still paying off the loan which now stands at around
£800.

Astaroth

To be honest these are hard ones to deal with.

I obviously dont have the exact wording of your policy to give 100% definite advice but in general it is a pre-existing condition not a pre-existing diagnosis. Therefore if you had been to the doctor within 12 months before taking the loan out for a condition that is subsequently diagnosed as something then you cannot claim for that condition (or subsequent progression of the condition).

That said and done though... you say you lost your job... did you lose it (ie redundency etc) or did you give it up due to your medical condition? If it wasnt due to the medical condition were you still in a position to work at that point in terms of your medical condition? If it was you were made redundant and you were still able to work then it should have been an unemployment claim and not a sickness one and I have never seen a pre-existing condition clause under unemployment cover (as long as you are fit for work)

Anthillmob

it was redundancy and then i wen onto jsa and then onto IB.

anyways i dont owe much on it now but just this thing on watchdog last night got me thinking.

Astaroth

Subject to the wording of the policy, I would be highly surprised that you were not entitled to unemployment cover for the policy whilst on JSA as presumably at that point you were still actively seeking work - assuming of cause that they cant argue that you would/ should have known about the redundancy at inception