Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

[baskerville1875]

Hello to everyone,

Can anyone help me with this ?

22 years ago me and my wife took out a mortgage, and we were advised to take out Critical illness cover just in case anything went wrong, so we went ahead and took the cover out, in 2006 I had to leave my job through ill health due to arthritis, and I was given ill health retirement officially..

I have been registered Disabled since 1980 and I was just wondering was the bank correct in offering me Critical illness whilst knowing I was already disabled ? because when I eventually finished work they argued that I could not claim for me having to leave work as I had not got a described disease that was critical to my health.

That is it in a nutshell, was I miss sold the policy ? because we have had to pay the full mortgage amount each month since, I was officially retired in 2006 and the policy has still got 5 years to run, it seems very unfair to us as a family,

Many thanks to all that can help, :tinysmile_grin_t:

[labman]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

Were you registered disabled because of your arthritis?

[baskerville1875]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

No not because of my Arthritis, I had a a bad accident in 1979, which needed two operations and
the Arthritis slowly crept up on me over the years and incapacitated me eventually,

Many thanks,

[bluebottle]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

As well as being a retired policeman, I have worked voluntarily with the elderly and disabled since retiring. Arthritis can develop as the result of a virus or trauma, such as that sustained in an accident.

My advice to you is to study the terms and conditions of the Critical Illness Insurance and see if what the bank has said is correct. If it does not make any mention that arthritis is excluded, you may have grounds for a complaint. However, please check the T & Cs of the policy, then come back onto this thread and we will try and help you as best we can.

[jane1108]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

Hi Baskerville and welcome

Really sorry to hear about your health problems

Absolutely check the T&C because what defines a critical illness?

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

If you could not leave wortk due to illness because you were already unable to work, the policy was probably mis-sold !

[di30]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

Hi there

First of all so sorry to learn of your issues etc, and I would do as the posts say above, check the T&C's, and going by what you said "in my opinion" it seems you have a case and the policy may have been sold to you whilst it was worthless to you.

I am also looking into a few assurances of mine and my hubby's, taken out over the years (Scottish Widows), the bank Lloyds strongly advised for life/critical, but yet don't feel it fully meets our circumstances.

However, when we were sold these, as it was the banks very own (as we appeared to have taken out all the products offered by them), we taken them assuming we will not get any better than our own bank where we banked a number of years.
So naive at the time.

Good luck and if you feel it was wrongly sold to you, do write to them and give them as many details as you can.

[Bill-K]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

If you could not leave wortk due to illness because you were already unable to work, the policy was probably mis-sold !

I can't quite get my head round this, because it seems like a Catch 22, or a 'Chicken and Egg' scenario. BUT - If Springer said it, then it must have "legs."

FWIW, I always suggest that anyone who thinks they may have been mis-sold PPI should claim anyway - and do so with a 'generic' claim letter, which simply suggests that the policy was mis-sold. Do not give the respondent any more than that, and see what their response is. At that point, we are then able to focus a little more.

Softly, softly....catchee monkey.
.....Blimey....did I say that ? :billk:
....slapped hairy wrist !!!

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

You cannot (usually) insure yourself against something which has already happened.

I woudl write suggesting the policy was of no value to you as you were already unable to work due to disability / ill health.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Hello All, Disability and Critical Illness cover, anyone know ?

It is my considered opinion that such insurance policies - which depend largely on the good will of the insurer as to whether or not the insured will be paid - are even less use than the teats on a cast iron pig. :mad2: