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When he bought redundancy insurance, Wilhelm Finger didn't expect to be trailed by a detective, but that is exactly what happened when he had to make a claim. By Victoria Hartley
Concerned about the safety of his job, and the impact this might have on his mortgage, Wilhelm Finger bought accident, sickness and unemployment cover through his mortgage broker in 2004. He need not have worried at the time, but in April last year the firm collapsed taking his job with it. Finger had been working freelance, too, but when the company went under he made a claim which was the starting point for a string of events involving a private detective and being spied on online.
The first issue arose when it emerged that the Cardif Pinnacle policy sold to Finger only covered his main income, not the earnings he made from freelancing. Although it is common for policies to not cover the self-employed, his mortgage broker had not explained this was the case, and to qualify for the monthly £800 payouts he had to both sign on and keep up the £56.40 monthly premiums. Finger gave up his other work, provided evidence he had stopped trading and, in expectation of the payouts, started a part-time MA. Under the conditions of his policy these were set to begin before the end of June. However, Cardif Pinnacle had other ideas and began investigating his claim.
Shortly afterwards, Finger received two calls. The first was from someone claiming to be from Fedex asking when he would be home so the company could make a delivery. He was also contacted by someone posing as a market researcher for Tower Hamlet Council. His suspicion that these calls were not quite what they seemed were confirmed when he met a case assessor from Cardif Pinnacle who showed him the file the investigator had compiled on him. It included photographs of Finger's car parked outside and print outs of his photo on a friend's blog. Creepily, the file also included details of when he had taken a shower one day.
This wasn't all – the assessor then questioned Finger for two hours, asking him to show bank and mortgage statements and his German passport, and to sign a declaration at the end of the interview. "I was exhausted. I felt scared, too, and was made to feel like a criminal. The assessor just wanted to humiliate and intimidate me," Finger says.
Forced cancellation
Finger telephoned Cardif Pinnacle to complain about his treatment. He got an apology, but the only explanation he received for the assessor's aggression was that he was ex-army. Finger continued to pay his premiums but got no case update – despite repeated phone calls – for four months. Eventually he decided there was no point continuing with the policy. "I realised after the assessor came here I was never going to get the pay out and couldn't live on £60 a week. The whole situation put stress on my confidence and I was getting physically ill, so I just cancelled the policy and stopped paying the premiums on 21 August. I had just had enough," he says.
Finger finally received a cheque for £1,246.67 on 25 November, two months after he stopped paying the premiums and seven months after his initial claim.
In its response, Cardif Pinnacle refused to "discuss the details of individual clients" or explain how it calculated his settlement cheque. Pinnacle disputes Finger's story saying "the facts as presented here do not reflect the full course of events", and without any further communications from Finger says it feels the matter has been "resolved".
But the insurer admits it uses third-party investigators on cases with "possible indications the claim is not valid". It adds: "In these cases, the decision regarding the payment of the claim can be delayed whilst inconsistencies in claim information are investigated further."
The Association of British Insurers says it is "highly unusual" for an insurer to take so long to settle a claim, with most taking around four weeks. Spokeswoman Kelly Ostler-Coyle adds: "Fraud costs the industry £1.5bn year and it is essential honest policyholders don't pay for that, so it's in the interests of consumers to make sure honest consumers get paid and fraudsters are weeded out."
This is little comfort to Finger, who after four years paying premiums received just one-and-half-months worth of payouts from a policy which, instead of giving him peace of mind, added to his stress levels.
How to make a successful claim
• Read all the small print twice to make sure your employment circumstances are covered.
• Don't change your story halfway through. Make sure you get it right first time – if you change details it could arouse suspicion.
• If you have any paperwork supporting your claim, dig it out early and be ready to hand it over.
• If the response to your complaint is unsatisfactory, tell the claims handler you are going to write to the chief executive. If the result is still not to your liking you should contact the Financial ombudsman (tel: 0845 080 1800).
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