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Breaking stories
Insurer refused to see leukaemia as critical illness despite policy terms
By Vincent Ryan
Gerry Canning contracted leukaemia in 2010 and sought to claim under payment protection insurance (PPI) for a lorry he had bought in 2008.
Under the terms of his PPI, leukaemia was listed as a critical illness but his insurer, GE Money, sought to argue that leukaemia was only a sickness, and was only willing to cover six months of his payments.Mr Canning went to court where he won his case forcing GE to pay €12,433 remaining of his loan.
However, not all issues around PPI are as open and shut as Mr Canning’s case. The Central Bank has outlined cases where customers could be liable for a refund due to the mis-selling of PPIs.
It uncovered a case of PPI being sold to an unemployed lady who would never have been able to claim on her policy. She would not have been eligible to claim that she couldn’t meet payment due to illness or loss of her job, as she was unemployed when she signed the policy.
Another man could not have claimed on his PPI even though he was employed. He worked 16 hours a week, but his policy required him to work 18 hours a week for him to be eligible to make a claim.
The Central Bank probe found one woman who worked abroad but used an Irish address on her policy. She would never have been able to make a successful claim as the policy required her to be working here.
The probe also found a man with very poor English who didn’t understand what the sales agent was selling him when he bought a PPI policy in conjunction with a car loan.
The Central Bank now expects companies which sold these policies to assess whether the insurance sold was suitable for the policyholder and that the policyholder was eligible to claim on the insurance sold.