Life Insurance company won't help?

trevjen

I am self employed and have been for over 35 years, most of this time I have paid for life insurance and critical illness insurance with Scottish Equitable, increasing every year it is now £396.00 per month. In all of my working life I have never claimed a penny in benefits. I have been told to close my shop and isolate, as have many, to protect myself and my wife who is in the vulnerable category and  cannot get any financial help despite all the promises made. I contacted Scottish Equitable to request a payment holiday as I can no longer find £396.00 per month, they have point blank refused saying I have 30 days to pay any missing premium but must include the following months premium otherwise they will cancel my insurance!. They also say that if I wish to reinstate it at a later date I will not only have to pay the missing premiums but have to undergo further medical tests and assessment before they will allow me to do this! In these unprecedented times is this the correct way for this company to act and is it legal to basically blackmail me into paying the premiums instead of  buying food? I like many self employed am unable to wait until June to find out that I probably won't get any of the self employed benefit also promised. What am I supposed to do in this situation?

Jeremy535897

It will depend on what the insurance contract says, but I suspect that they have the legal right to do as they are saying.

If you have low income and are not already claiming tax credits, look at universal credit. I am not sure why you think that you won't get anything from SEISS in June? It may be that you can get a micro loan as announced by the Chancellor a couple of days ago?

trevjen

Thanks Jeremy, I suppose as long as this Insurance company keeps its profits up and shareholders in profit, people like me who have given them thousands of pounds over the years will just increase their profits further if they won't need to eventually pay out on a claim.

I now have NO income apart from my small state pension so cant get universal credit . My pension will virtually all go on this insurance premium if I must pay it. I certainly will be attempting to obtain this micro loan and just hope it is better than the CBILS that I applied to Barclays for over 3 weeks ago and am still waiting to hear any response!

Jeremy535897

If you have no income other than a small state pension are you entitled to pension credit?

Semple

I think most insurance products won't allow gaps in payment schedules.

Just going on a different track, is there a reason you're still paying for life insurance/critical illness cover after 35 years of work? Do you still have a high amount on a mortgage to pay etc? It seems unusual as most would tend to have a cover for the duration of their mortgage, or for a fixed length of time. 

Undervalued

Semple said:

I think most insurance products won't allow gaps in payment schedules.

Just going on a different track, is there a reason you're still paying for life insurance/critical illness cover after 35 years of work? Do you still have a high amount on a mortgage to pay etc? It seems unusual as most would tend to have a cover for the duration of their mortgage, or for a fixed length of time. 

I was about the post the same question.

The OP is paying well over £4.5K per year for this insurance! Presumably the level of cover must be really quite significant or he is judged to be at high risk? Psychologically, it is very difficult to make yourself cancel this sort of policy (if of course that is the right decision) as you tend to feel that you have then wasted all the premiums you have paid and are somehow bound to have had reason to claim within a few months!

The OP says " I have been told to close my shop and isolate, as have many, to protect myself and my wife who is in the vulnerable category". Whilst that may be good advice, it is just that - advice. Something which you are free to follow or not as you please. Nothing in that forces the insurance company to change their normal terms, particularly as part of the "advice" is more for the benefit of his wife than himself.

sharpe106

As you say you are high risk so a high chance of dying if you get it, why would they even consider a payment break and still have to pay out if you die. Would you?