Income Protection Insurance - can I claim back premiums if I realised policy wasn't valid last 4 yrs

mutterances

We have just come to realise that my wife's 'Income Protection' policy has not been valid for about the last 4 years due to her change in employment circumstances.


The policy is to cover her in the event that she is incapacitated by ill health and unable to work in her job. In the event of a claim, it doesn't start paying out until 26 weeks after incapacity started. The job she originally took out the policy for was working for the NHS, and she left as an employee in September 2015 to officially care for a member of our family. Since then she has very briefly done some minimal 'bank' work for the NHS (approx 7 hours a week over about 2 - 3 months in 2016/17), and since then has been developing her own business, but this is still costing more than it's making and she doesn't need to even officially be registered with HMRC until a certain revenue level is reached (which it has not yet).


In short, since my wife left her job in Sep 2015, I feel there has been no valid employment basis to which she could could have ever made a claim against if she got sick. I would have cancelled the policy back then, but forgot we had it, rather I thought it was for something else. We have continued to make monthly payments for insurance that is worthless, that amount to about £500 of payments.


Before I phone the insurance company to cancel the policy and discuss, I wondered if anyone else had views on this? The insurance company not knowing about our changes in circumstances I would assume is our own fault (I'm assuming there isn't a governmental system that would have notified Legal and General about my wife's change of employment). However, given that the insurance from Sep 2015 was worthless to us and we had no basis for ever making a claim, I would hope there might be a ruling that if we can prove this (we can quite easily) the insurance company may be obligied to refund the premiums paid for what was an utterly worthless policy for this time period?


Any helpful thoughts on this much appreciated. Many thanks :-)

robber2

I suspect that this "The insurance company not knowing about our changes in circumstances I would assume is our own fault" applies. Particularly as you have also willingly continued to pay the insurance premiums for the past 4 years.



Rob

Nearlyold

Have you checked the Terms & Conditions? Some Income Protection policies give "Houseperson" cover for those that are not "Gainfully Employed/Self Employed" eg working less than 16 hours a week.

SonOf

We have just come to realise that my wife's 'Income Protection' policy has not been valid for about the last 4 years due to her change in employment circumstances.

Are you sure? Income protection (if you mean proper income protection and not payment protection) is underwritten on the medical and employment details at the point of sale. Future changes do not impact on the policy and its even possible not to be working and still get cover (e.g. housewives).

Before I phone the insurance company to cancel the policy and discuss, I wondered if anyone else had views on this?

If it is proper income protection then there is a good chance she still is covered as she is developing her own business and on all but very basic plans, she would still be covered.

[Deleted User]

mutterances wrote: »

The insurance company not knowing about our changes in circumstances I would assume is our own fault

Indeed, it's your own responsibility to inform insurance companies of any major change in circumstance especially if it may actually invalidate the policy. The time to do this was four years ago.

mutterances wrote: »

I'm assuming there isn't a governmental system that would have notified Legal and General about my wife's change of employment

Not until we actually live in a Police State, I'm afraid.

mutterances wrote: »

given that the insurance from Sep 2015 was worthless to us

Are you certain this is the case or are you just assuming?

mutterances wrote: »

we had no basis for ever making a claim

You don't receive a refund of insurance simply because you have not suffered a claimable event.

mutterances wrote: »

I would hope there might be a ruling that the insurance company may be obligied to refund the premiums paid for what was an utterly worthless policy for this time period?

There is no such ruling. The company's only "obligation" is to continue providing you with the insurance you purchased until such time as you change or cancel the policy.

mutterances wrote: »

an utterly worthless policy for this time period

Again, are you certain the insurance was worthless?

Regardless, you carried on paying for it without query and for that you have no one to blame but yourself I'm afraid.

Sorry

mutterances

Re-reading my question, I realise I truly sound like a fool - thanks for your helpful thoughts despite this!

This situation is indesputably my own fault. We have suffered tragic circumstances for the last few years, and this is one of several non-essential things I didn't think to re-assess at the relevant time as I normally would, then further forgetting about this policy's exact purpose. L & G process the Direct Debits for our different policies in a rather idiosyncratic way which didn't help either and normally I'd have been a lot more on the ball (not to sound defensive, I accept this is my fault!).



The fair point has been raised by several of you questioning whether the policy was in fact as useless as I first thought. Looking through the detailed terms of the policy it appears that there is not only cover during 'gainful' employment and self-employment (both of which I was aware of being covered) but probably some degree of more minimal cover for 'not in gainful employment' too.


However, my wife's situation is perhaps complicated by the fact she left gainful employment in order to care for a family member, and subsequently only was paid a small amount of Carer's Allowance by the state. What this is classified as I'm unsure, but perhaps she would be viewed by L & G as not in any kind of 'gainful employment' for this period, as I believe an allowance paid by the state is treated as a different status to conventional income, and if so perhaps the policy would be valid in the context of the 'not in gainful employment' terms laid out in the policy agreement?


Regardless of whether the policy has validity, it is patently clear that I should have cancelled this policy 4 years ago, and instead of making myself look even sillier by asking Legal & General about it, I shall instead get my wife to cancel the policy immediately with no further questions asked.


Thank you all for your time and input, and not just judging or laughing at me, appreciated :-)