Help Endowment shortfall, both ill, mortgage has to be paid.

unifan

Would be grateful if anyone can offer any advice with a very difficult situation. We were mis-sold our 25 year low cost endowment mortgage, which began in 1990 . In 1999 then in 2006 we were both diagnosed with an incurable, rare disease that they treat with chemotherapy and other immune suppressant infusions, meds that we'll have to have for as long as we live now. We both lost jobs through no fault of our own, it’s been horrendous, constant hospital appointments and treatments and a hospital 4 hours drive away. So lots of cost times 2, there being 2 of us, for travel, lost pay, etc.. It’s a constant nightmare. So finances suffer with only one of us working now. We've never got in a mess though, always paid bills first, never missed any payments ever, just cut down on the food bill when necessary or not had the heating on, even though we needed it due to our health problems, because we feared the cost or just couldn’t afford to and haven't had holidays since my husband was diagnosed too in 2006. So we haven't frittered money away just not had it. Sometimes things seemed unbearable and we ignored some things because we simply couldn't cope with it all. We never thought our lives would come to this. These things are hard enough to deal with when you're well but when you're as ill as we've been/are it’s just impossible.


We did try and address the mortgage shortfall problem and were given £4000 by Standard Life, after discussing our problems, we told them how ill we were and that it was the last thing we needed to have to deal with. They’d sent letters out to everyone giving a promise at one stage to certain customers that met the criteria I think but that commitment fell through. The mortgagee needs to be paid to the Halifax very soon and we don’t have it all, so might lose our home unless we can borrow the shortfall somehow. We can’t afford a loan but we know we have no choice, we can’t afford to move either and don’t have the strength to. We’re absolutely demented with the worry of that and other things such as waiting for results because the hospital found something on scans that concerned them. All this we don’t need.


The last we heard the shortfall was going to be in the region of between £10,000 & 14,000 (the full amount is £28,000). Originally they told us it would pay that off and be enough to buy a new car!. I know that may not seem like a lot but to us it's a fortune. They haven’t been in touch yet to tell us what it will be. We're dreading it. There was mention on the letter that some people might get a payment for an extra £1000/£2000+ but they wouldn't be able say until the endowment ended but no doubt we won’t be one of the lucky unlucky ones. We never have any luck as you can probably guess. I'm getting even less sleep than I normally do worrying about where we're going to get the money from.


We were hoping to get some PPI back from Lloyds TSB but they refused us saying that he'd asked for the card insurance, that they had a record of my husband phoning them to ask for it but he hadn't, we never take that kind of thing out. All we've ever taken out is the Mortgage Protection Policy with the mortgage, which we claimed on in 2006 for some months, when my husband took ill, but have continued to pay the payments, still do. The only time he'd phoned was to activate the card which is what they'd told him to do in the instructions with the card. We filled all the forms in for PPI ourselves, supplied whatever we could. Someone phoned about it one night, he was very brusque, asked lots and lots of questions about the illness we have, what effect it has, how it made my husband feel, etc., it went on for ages, not questions asked out of concern but as if it affected their decision. We'd already told them everything on the form that they needed. It was like being given the third degree if you get my point. He'd got ill a few years, after taking the credit card not before. They refused the claim because they said he'd asked for the insurance cover but he had not. We couldn't prove it and just couldn't face another battle. So no luck there.


Can anyone advise or suggest where we can go for help. I can't see the building society loaning us money, so where would be the best to get the lowest rate, or is there a different way of borrowing the money perhaps?


Any suggestions gratefully received. Thanks.
PS. Hope I get notifications of any replies.