Critical illness mis-selling? Discussion

[Deleted User]

MSE_Sam_M wrote: »

Martin would love to hear via this forum discussion.

Martin? The guy who sold this site some time back? How is he involved?

-taff

I''m just wondering where this is coming from. I can see a whole swathe of people deciding to chuck thir insurances becasue they read it on MSE, totally misinterpreted it, and then suffered something that meant they needed these insurances.
It would be better if your article was a bit more accurate and less misleading, like similar articles that haven't been updated recently.

Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask some of the people that answer the queries that come up on these boards instead of randomly putting together something that's a bit ambiguous.

[not me by the way]

Samwarner26

My father had critical illness on his Midlands Bank (HSBC) mortgage yet when he had a quadruple heart bypass 5 years ago and was off self employed work for 6 months the bank said he had cancelled this policy years prior. My father has difficulty reading and writing so I help with his affairs and we definitely did not cancel the policy but only have really old documents to prove we did have it. The bank refused to cover the mortgage payments under this cover yet would not confirm anything in writing just verbally over the phone. Can anyone advise on how we pursue this as my Father has never claimed anything ( including benefits) in his life. Any help would be gratefully received.

-taff

Have you got bank statements detailing payments for this insurance?
Have you still got policy documents for this?

Nasqueron

Can you prove it wasn't cancelled (e.g. payments continued to be made) or did they cancel it and payments stopped? If you help with his affairs did you have any notice of a cancellation of payments or notice the bank was no longer collecting?

dunstonh

Just checked the ombudsman complaint stats on CIC. It has a low uphold rate running at 17% in July-Sept 2016. This is not just about sales but anything to do with CIC (claims, admin etc).

Looking at the ombudsman decisions since they started publishing with there were 763 rejections vs 245 upholds.

It was actually difficult finding mis-sale cases in that lot. There are not many. Those that do exist seem to be mixing up PPI with CI. However, here is a typical one:
http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=112627

There also seems to be a number of complaints that CIC was not sold when the person thought it should have been. There as some upheld mis-sale ones but most of these seem to be for technical failures (factfind/needs analysis showing no financial need but sold anyway or the advice file was missing. A common response in the uphelds "While this is possible, I would have expected to have seen some sort of written explanation along these lines in the documentation". So, the person got an uphold because the mortgage adviser didn't explain the scenario adequately.

Medinababy

I was mis-sold critical illness cover with my first mortgage with the then Scarborough Building Society, after splitting up with my husband. At the time I worked within the Local Education Authority, and didn’t see the need for additional illness cover as I would be eligible for full sick pay for the first six months of any claim and also paid into the LEA pension fund. I looked for the best deal and the Mortgage Advisor went through all the options with me and despite me saying that I didn’t wish to have this cover, he explained that he had to tick the box to confirm that he had told me of the benefits of taking out this cover. It turned out that he had authorised the cover to be paid, which as it was built into the mortgage payments, I didn’t know that I was paying this until I changed mortgage provider to the Alliance and Leicester Building Society.
Again, I had stated that I didn’t wish to have Critical Illness Insurance but the Mortgage Advisor made me feel bullied into taking this as she kept on saying as a single parent, it was my responsibility not to burden them with the responsibility for the mortgage repayments. I admit I was naïve so agreed to this, it was only in later years that I decided that I didn’t need it and cancelled it.
I tried to claim the payments back but after a three year wrangle with both Building Societies [now Skipton and Santander respectfully] and the Financial Ombudsmen [with whom I appealed the decision], but to no avail. The Financial Ombudsmen’s decisions were upheld as it was my word against theirs.
Any assistance would be gratefully received.

dunstonh

At the time I worked within the Local Education Authority, and didn’t see the need for additional illness cover as I would be eligible for full sick pay for the first six months of any claim and also paid into the LEA pension fund.

So, there was a financial need for CIC as none of those things overlap with CIC.

I tried to claim the payments back but after a three year wrangle with both Building Societies [now Skipton and Santander respectfully] and the Financial Ombudsmen [with whom I appealed the decision], but to no avail. The Financial Ombudsmen’s decisions were upheld as it was my word against theirs.

Exactly the point I made earlier. You allegation is normally unprovable. So, they look at suitability and you did have a financial need for it. So, found no grounds to uphold your complaint.

Any assistance would be gratefully received.

You complained and lost. You referred to the FOS and lost. You appealed to an ombudsman and lost. That is game over.

Samwarner26

It was built into his mortgage so no separate payments.

mckinkle

Hi, Ive had a query about this for the last 12 years or so.
Following my divorce in 2000 I bought a property for myself and my two teenage daughters. I took out a policy for critical illness to protect the house should anything happen.
4 years later at the time I was made redundant on the day of my Mums funeral I suffered a breakdown and as I seemingly had not advised the insurers that I suffered from depression - not that I knew I was suffering from depression anyway and when I questioned my GP she said that as I had had one counselling session that I was depressed - the policy refused to pay out on that point.
As I also had unemployment element to the insurance I tried to claim the mortgage payments on that basis and was told that as I was not registered to look for work I could not claim it. I was physically unable to look for work due to the mental breakdown.
I was caught between a rock and a hard place and I had paid out for several years for a policy that would not pay out.
As I was so mentally weak at that time I was totally unable to fight them.
As far as I am concerned I cant believe that a policy can be sold that does not pay out. It totally affected my life thereafter as the stress of being a single mum with a mortgage but no job led me into a major decline.
I would love to know if this is acceptable behaviour?