Millions of UK property owners exposed to financial risk

June 24, 2016 by Brendan O'Neill

Home owners

Only around half of all mortgage holders have adequate life insurance, to cover them if they were to die. This is equivalent to 8.2 million people, according to a study by Scottish Widows.

Critical illness cover policies are held by just 20% of mortgage holders, according to the research, which states that millions more would be left facing financial problems if they became seriously ill. Just over a third of those surveyed admitted that if they or their partner became unable to work through injury or illness, they wouldn’t be able to survive on a lone wage. Of those who said they wouldn’t be able to survive on just one income, 43% said that they would have to use their savings to survive. However, 15% don’t have any idea of how much they have in their savings, while 43% say that their savings would only last for around two months.

The household bills would only be paid for three months at the most, according to 23% of respondents, while 23% would only be able to pay their mortgage for a maximum of three months. Around 15% weren’t sure how many months they would be able to pay their mortgage for.

Changes which have been introduced in the Support for Mortgage Interest mean that people would be left waiting for 39 weeks until they could claim the welfare benefit. Life insurance is essential and could prevent a person losing their home. Part of the CeMAP training course involves learning about insurance and other payments, so that an adviser is able to offer advice.