Travel insurance - ASD - cancellation cover

raisin78

Hi all

We have a 17 year old son with autism. We have booked a two week holiday in July, but because of increasingly violent behaviour (police called out yesterday) we are sadly thinking of cancelling the holiday. TUI's policy is to charge 70% of the holiday cost as a cancellation fee, so I was wondering if we could claim on our travel insurance. We have an annual policy with LV and declared his condition, but at the time he wasn't displaying aggressive behaviour. LV's questions were: (1) When you travel will you always be accompanied by someone you know? We answered yes. (2) Does this frequently lead to aggressive behaviour? We answered no, which was the case at the time.


If we cancel we will lose about £1,500 (which we are prepared for, as the holiday will not be a relaxing break), but it would be good to know if the changes in his condition might allow us to claim. LV's policy states: Once you have purchased cover you don’t need to tell us of any changes to any insured person’s medical health during the period of cover. This includes if a medical condition or any symptoms develop after your policy was issued or if a pre-existing condition you’ve told us about changes in any way.

If anyone could offer any advice that would be really helpful!


Many thanks in advance

[Deleted User]

Yes claim, if you declared the change in symptoms shouldn't matter

w06

agree, it reads as though it's exactly the type of situation that cancellation insurance is for. Think of it like if he had eg asthma, when you took out the policy he'd never been admitted but then in the past few weeks he'd been to itu and you now can't go on holiday, it's the ASD equivalent.

The one thing that might be an issue is whether you can't go or are choosing not to go - you'll need to word the claim carefully.

Hope things improve for you all

raisin78

Thanks for your replies. We are putting off the decision to cancel, as the 70% fee goes up to 90% fee by 23 June we have until then really to decide.


We have really good engagement with his school, social worker and CAMHS so hopefully we can all get to a better place by then. He knows that we are thinking of cancelling so there is a big incentive for him to improve.


Thanks again.

JessyRM

Wishing you all the best and hope that the situation improves. If you have had police involvement I imagine you would have a crime ref number you could use with your insurance claim, should you decide it's not safe to go away with his behaviour.