Has anyone been able to use their critical illness cover on mortgage since being diagnosed?

[eognij]

Good afternoon my partner was diagnosed with CSS about 7 months ago and has also been made redundant from his job during this time. We have always paid a premium rate for critical illness cover on our mortgage. When we have tried to use this, we were told CSS was not covered. I was just interested to know whether anyone has been able to use their cover. Many thanks.

[braindamage]

Isn't it amazing how insurance cover dissappears! We took out a loan with our bank to extend our home about two years before I was diagnosed with WG. After repeated letters to the insurers, they eventually agreed to write off the (small) balance.

Maybe you should look again at the policy to see if it specifically mentions that CSS claims are excluded? Might be an arguement to support your claim? ATB.

[Lupylass]

Critical Illness protects against pre-defined conditions, including cancer, heart attack and stroke. Within each condition the policyholder has to meet the definition wording, so for cancer, only the more serious cancers are covered; not the 'in-situ' cancers.

Although CSS isn't covered by your policy the insurer should check that the severity of your symptoms doesn't mean that you meet the criteria of one of the other definitions under your policy. So for example, if your kidneys are severely affected and your policy includes kidney failure, this may be an option.

Critical illness cover is designed for conditions that are very life threatening and where the symptoms are going to have a major and irreversible impact on the persons life. So for conditions such as multiple sclerosis, as an example, it doesn't pay out on diagnosis, only once the policyholder meets certain criteria. This should all be well laid out in your policy conditions, and, if the policy was sold to you by a financial adviser, this should have been explained to you up front.

I hope this helps.