'No compassion' - Terminally ill Shropshire man is refused £160,000 insurance payout
A Shropshire man who is dying of cancer has been refused a £160,000 payout by his insurance company.
In early February, Andrew Preston was told by his doctor he had terminal cancer and had just a year to live.
Under the terminal illness clause of his life insurance policy, the 61-year-old from south Shropshire should have been entitled to a payout of £160,000.
But Legal and General has refused to pay, claiming its doctor, who has never spoken to Mr Preston, believed he would live for longer than 12 months.
It is the third time in two years that the insurer has come under fire for listening to its medical advisers, rather than the customer's own specialist.
The longer L&G delay paying Mr Preston's claim, the less money he will receive because his payout is designed to shrink every month.
Mr Preston says he took out the policy to clear the mortgage in case something ever happened to him.
So when he learned he had terminal rectal cancer that had spread to his liver, he called the insurer to make a claim on it.
When L&G wouldn't pay, Mr Preston contested the decision.
As a self-employed businessman, Mr Preston has no company sick pay to fall back on, only a small monthly sum from the government to keep him going.
Without the money from L&G, he said he would have no choice but to sell his home.
Mr Preston, who has a 27-year-old daughter, says: "When I called to claim, a woman simply repeated the policy conditions over and over and basically told me they weren't going to pay.
"There was no compassion there at all. I didn't understand it, as they have to pay out when I die anyway."
The type of policy Mr Preston took out is known in the industry as a decreasing term insurance policy. The payout grows smaller each year as the mortgage is slowly paid off.
Over the past 12 months, the Financial Ombudsman has received 100 complaints about L&G term life insurance policies, about 90 more than the average in the industry.
A spokeswoman for L&G said: "We have every sympathy with Mr Preston.
"We accept that his condition is terminal, but we have to establish that his circumstances meet the terms of our policy, which would allow us to make a payment of his claim."
