When economic storm clouds gather, many families may start to wonder if there’s anything they can do to help minimise the chances of them suffering the worst effects. Some people immediately turn to reducing their car journeys and leaving some of the luxuries out of the shopping budget. Holiday destinations might be changed, and some other big purchases put on hold. However, there is still the risk of difficulty, particularly if someone has a homeloan, and a mortgage protection unemployment policy may help some households.
This is a form of financial insurance which can provide an added safety net when times are looking tougher. A mortgage protection policy is for people concerned that they may in the future struggle to pay back their home loan through no fault of their own. For example, most policies of this type will protect someone if they lose their income due to being ill, being off work for long periods with an injury suffered in accent, or if they lose their jobs through being made redundant involuntarily.
This is a type of insurance designed to help someone keep going in a crisis, and to make up for the shortfalls which can emerge from inadequate sick pay policies which only last a few months and redundancy packages which are ungenerous. They can also be attractive to people who have little or no savings and who would not be able to keep going on their own if left high and dry.
Failure to keep up with repayments on a homeloan can badly affect someone’s credit rating. This may mean they find it harder to get credit in future and can also eventually lead to the threat of repossession. This sort of situation can be even more frustrating when it is not the homeowner’s fault, rather they have simply fallen on unlucky circumstances.
A mortgage protection unemployment policy will kick in specifically if someone ends up unemployed through being made involuntarily redundant. It will understandably not protect someone who ends up out of work simply through being sacked, or through taking an offer of redundancy. Following a successful claim, the insurance company will start to pay the policyholder a monthly sum into their bank account. A month must normally expire before the first payment arrives, although some companies will backdate their payments to the first day someone was without work.
Payments will usually protect a percentage of somebody’s monthly homeloan-related outgoings, plus costs like the interest on the homeloan, buildings and contents insurance, and even council tax. Packages normally start at 50 per cent protection, and higher amounts are available for higher premiums. Mortgage protection unemployment policies are not the only types of cover, and other policies will protect against injury and illness, and even if someone has to leave their job in order to become someone’s carer full-time. Simon Burgess is from protection specialists British Insurance. He said: “If times are tight insurance of this type can provide a household with peace of mind, and our policies start from just a few pounds per 100 pounds worth of cover.”
For many years I have been a staunch campaigner against the major names in finance who, I believe, rip-off their customers by selling over priced, often unsuitable payment protection insurance (PPI) cover.