Waiver of Premium on Endowment - Standard Life have stopped paying!

Jaspersmum

Hello
I hope you wise people on here have some advice on what I should do next.
I took out a low cost endowment in 1998, a couple of years later my partner had a terrible accident at work.
Standard life then started paying the premiums (about £100 per month). A couple of years on my partner and I moved abroad for his health, unfortunatley due to family illness we had to come back in 2010. While we were abroad (4 years) we were contacted by Standard Life for a review to see if anything had changed. We filled in numerous forms and sent them back.
We were then contacted by Standard Life to say that because we did not have a Doctor in the UK who could confirm my partners condition (it was worse) then they were stopping paying.
I should have looked into this more at the time, but with moving back and family illness, nowhere to live etc etc it was just one more thing to add to the pile.
Can I still contact them and ask for it to be reviewed or is there an ombudsman type of thing for endowments who would look the circumstances.
Thank you.

kingstreet

So they stopped the waiver. Did you start paying the premiums again?

Has there been no change in his condition? You've been back since 2010 and are only looking at this issue now?

Is the policy still in force?

Jaspersmum

Hi Kingstreet

Yes they stopped paying the premium, we did not start the payments again - apart from the fact we had no money, the policy was underperforming etc etc.

We sold our house to move abroad so the endowment was then a savings plan really as my husband has no pension provision.

I should have looked into it earlier but it was really just another kick while we were down.

My partner has not worked since his accident, he gets incapacity benefit and industrial injuries for life - his condition will only get worse and never better!

He has always been assessed by the DWP and they rarely want to see him as they know the score and he was assessed for life.

It just seems that Standard Life want to wheedle out of paying the waiver and pick the easy targets. (The letters they sent were quite brusk and gave the impression their decision was final)

kingstreet

I would imagine the policy is paid-up, or at worst lapsed no value. You might wish to contact Standard Life to establish if there is a value you could get hold of.

On the waiver issue, I accept what you say about the tone of the letters, but it is the legal position which counts. Waiver is about inability to work due to accident or sickness, and if you remove yourself from the country making it impossible for them to verify if the policyholder is able, or unable, to work they have little or no option but to err on the side of caution and cancel the claim, until you can provide the evidence it should continue.

Indeed, if this was an income protection claim, of which waiver is a kind of sawn-off version, that would also end if the insurer is unable to satisfy itself of the ongoing condition.

I don't believe you have any possibility of redress in this situation. As a matter of interest, did you ask Standard Life what the implications of living overseas would be before you did it? Did they supply a copy of the terms of the waiver to confirm it was only applicable while the policyholder was UK resident?

I believe the waiver would have continued to the end of the policy, had the policyholder remained in the UK.

Jaspersmum

Thank you very much for your reply.

I had thought as much, I don't remember contacting them before we moved to be honest, only to change our address!! As my Husbands benefits were still payable while abroad (EU Country) I didn't even think of it. The DWP were perfectly happy with evidence we provided, Doctors report (written in English), up to date xrays etc etc.

It was never mentioned in any correspondence that it was an issue with us living abroad, just that they were unwilling to pay as we did not have a GP that they could contact.

I just remember seeing a report on Sky news about Standard Life loosing money and then within days getting a letter from them stopping the payments - I think it was just a cull !!

As we are back in the UK for good now, would it not be possible to reinstate the policy as we can obviously provide plenty of evidence to support it. (As we did while we were abroad, but it didn't count)

Thanks again

kingstreet

A policy can be reinstated for upto 12 months (off the top of my head) but the problem will be the back premiums which have been missed. They won't accept medical evidence which is now out of date and I don't suppose you have the money to pay them now.

Like I said, contact them to see if there's any money for you from a surrender. Ask them if there's anything they can do to reinstate and under what circumstances they would do it. I can't imagine they will reinstate the waiver so you can start claiming on it again, so I suspect the surrender will be your best bet.

holly_hobby

It all hinges on the T&Cs for the wavier.

The firm are unable to rely upon terms or conditinos that were never published, nor disclosed at the POS (or subsequently if by amendment), in so much that failure to do so would have directly prevented the policyholder, from making a balanced and informed decision as to the suitability of the policy (in this option) at POS.

So you are looking for disclosure within the T&Cs, that under a WOP claim, the cliamant must retain a UK Dr, or indeed remain resident in the UK whilst WOP was in payment - or anything pertaining to a change in personal circs, which of course emigration may be argued is such an event.

A lapsed poilcy may possibly be re-instated (after 12 mth reinstatement period has elapsed), subject to the policy, and certain terms and conditions and really is only ordinarilly considered where the provider is at fault in the cancellation of a plan as it is costly and laborious to implement).

So .. as Kings states ... first things first WHAT exactly do the T&Cs re the instigation and continued payment of WOP actually state ?

Hope this helps

Holly

Jaspersmum

Thank you for your quick reply.

I don't have the funds to pay the missed premiums and to be honest looking at it's performance even if I had I would not bother! When they sent a statement it had WARNING in capital letters all over it!!

Anyway I shall send off a letter and ask the questions. Nothing ventured!!

Thanks again.