Well ok, so some people are saying I told you so .. but our mortgage company made it part of the deal that we had to have mortgage protection from the company they suggested.

Well, credit where credits due, this is the first of 3 redundancies where it looks like they might actually pay out. Well, eventually. You see they only start a claim from when they receive your first ABI1 form from the job-centre and you return a form they send you. In my case that was 4 weeks after the redundancy because firstly the benefits office screwed up my claim and took a month to sort it out and then the insurance company sent the urgent form out to me second class during peak Christmas card season with an incomplete address.

So I was already a month behind through no fault of my own. Knowing there was a 12 week delay before they’d start paying I duly forgot about it and never expected to hear from them again .. except I did.

One morning a request for another ABI1 form dropped through the letterbox, second class naturally and still with the incomplete address. So I got my form, sent it off first class and waited. And waited and still no money turned up. So the other day I phone them and ask when exactly when they are going to get around to paying out?

Well coincidentally they’d authorised the £100 only the day before and it should be in my account within 10 working days. That’s cool I said. Except why ten days when the bank says it should take 5 and why only £100 instead of the £400 I’ve been paying premiums for for the last 10 years!? I think I stayed calm simply because of the dreary inevitability of it.

(If you’ve ready any previous posts you’ll know that after I made my claim I reduced my premiums down to a minimum as I couldn’t afford the full amount .. reducing my £400 payout to £100)

Well, the nice lady said, I can clearly see that you reduced your premium AFTER you made the claim so they’ve made a mistake. I’ll arrange a meeting with my supervisor and have it sorted. I’ll phone you tomorrow and let you know when it’ll be fixed.

That was 3 days ago.

I’ve since had a letter confirming the payment of £100 and asking for a further letter of confirmation that I was unfit for work. OK . er .. hang on .. unfit for work? What? Since when was I unfit for work? What planet are these people on?

But then again the inevitability hits me. They’re an insurance company. They exist purely to frighten people out of their money with the suggestion that our investment will enable them to help us in time of need when in fact they will do everything in their power to avoid paying you what, under the terms of the contract, you are owed.