INSURANCE COMPANY

. Spot on.  I received life insurance on old Scottish Widows life insurance because I was deemed incurable. I believe over time policies have changed to place more stringent checks in place I.e it’s seemed incurable prostrate cancer no longer qualifies unless it’s significantly spread/ aggressive 

The problem we are all facing is that insurances & pensions have moved from paying out on a incurable/ terminal diagnosis to only paying out on a less than 12 months to live diagnosis backed by their own medical review

on the flip side consultants are moving away from giving timescales as treatments evolve and the speed of new treatments arriving quickens

this leaves us firmly up that well known creek without a paddle

They cant do that Gray! If you get no joy call the Ombudsman. Good luck

Thanks Tvman and everyone,

I think we are all caught between the devil and the deep blue sea!!

Of course we are all so grateful to be passing our sell by dates, mine was almost two years ago but I still have a terminal diagnosis and the reality is I’m not going to get better. I have spoken to Macmillan and to a financial advisor and the bottom line is the small print. I can understand that consultants can’t give a precise time frame, and to be honest I don’t really want one, but I feel as if I’m being cheated by the insurance company. On one phone call they actually said they don’t pay out in the final year of a policy.  I don’t know if that means they don’t pay out on death in the last year??? If I ever make any progress I will fill you in.

It will be interesting to see what happens in February when the policy is due for renewal.

I was lucky with my pension, I’m now 64 and worked for the NHS, actually the Western Trust, just down the road from you in Derry, and because of the DS1500 they accepted that my life expectancy was less than one year so they paid the lot in one go. There were other options but this was the best for me. 

Again thank you all and take care.

One of these days I will update my profile too.

Patmart