MetLife MortgageSafe - mortgage payment protection

What MortgageSafe is - in 60 seconds

MortgageSafe is mortgage payment protection insurance. When an accident or illness means you cannot do your job for at least 4 weeks, MetLife pays a pre-agreed monthly amount matching your mortgage payment, for 12 or 24 months per claim. The money goes to you or, if you prefer, straight to your lender. While benefit is being paid MetLife also refunds your premiums, so the policy costs you nothing during a claim. You can take it out while you are arranging your mortgage, or at any time afterwards.

Underwriting: why this is a policy for people with a medical history too

Traditional income protection needs full medical underwriting: a detailed questionnaire, often a GP report, tests, and questions about your parents' and siblings' health. The result: premium loadings, exclusions or a decline. MortgageSafe is designed the other way round: simple, quick and with the minimum of questions. If you have a long-term condition, are overweight, have diabetes, back problems or a history of mental health issues, this policy can be a realistic route to protecting your mortgage payment.

Three levels of cover - a comparison

Every level has the same 4-week deferred period and the same definition of being unable to work. They differ in scope (accident only, or accident and sickness), the length of payments and the number of health questions.

The example premiums are fictional, indicative examples from the MetLife brochure (COMP 2657.04). Your premium depends on age, smoker status, occupation, BMI, amount and term of cover.

How the payout works - from day one to your return to work

Important payout rules

• To you or to your lender. You can ask for the benefit to go directly to your lender (with the lender's agreement). If the benefit is higher than your payment, the lender receives exactly the payment and the excess comes to you. If it is lower, you make up the difference yourself; MetLife is not liable for any late-payment charges.
• A relapse within 12 months = no deferred period. If you return to work after a claim but the same cause stops you working again within 12 months of your return, MetLife treats it as a linked claim: no deferred period applies and payments continue until the benefit period is used up.
• Once the full period is used up (12 or 24 months in one claim or linked claims), you qualify for benefit again only after 6 months back in full-time work. A new, unrelated cause after your return to work is a new claim.
• A partial return to work. If after the deferred period you return on reduced hours, lower income or lighter duties, MetLife may pay a benefit proportionate to your lost earnings.
• Duty to inform. When you are fit to work again you must tell MetLife immediately; overpaid benefit is recoverable.
• Medical advice. Refusing to follow your doctor's advice, refusing an examination requested by MetLife, or refusing to take part in rehabilitation or retraining (paid for by MetLife) ends the payments.
• Worldwide cover, UK claim. An accident or illness abroad is covered, but the claim must be supported by evidence from a UK-registered doctor, so after your return.

What it costs

The MortgageSafe premium is individual but easy to predict. MetLife takes eight factors into account, and your state of health does not raise the price - at most it can result in a specific cause being excluded.

The brochure figures are fictional, indicative examples. We will prepare an exact quote for you free of charge.

Payment, changes and cancellation

• Payment: monthly, by Direct Debit from a UK bank account, for the whole policy term.
• Missed premium: you have 30 days from the due date. Non-payment means the policy ends automatically from the date of the unpaid premium; a claim made within those 30 days is paid after the arrears are deducted.
• Premium changes by MetLife: no more than once every 2 years, and only for general reasons (claims experience, costs, lapses, investment returns, legislation). Your health or personal circumstances are never a reason for a change. You get 30 days' notice of any change to the terms and the right to cancel.
• Reducing cover: at any time you can lower the amount, step down a level (for example Essential24 to Essential12 or to Core) or remove Child Cover.
• Increasing cover: Child Cover can be added at any time. Moving up a level (Core to Essential) requires underwriting and MetLife's written agreement. You can raise the amount when your payment changes, you move house or take a new mortgage; on Essential an increase of up to 20% needs no further underwriting, above that it is assessed.
• Cancelling: at any time. Within 30 days of confirmation that cover has started or of receiving the terms (whichever is later) you get a full refund of premiums if there has been no claim; after that, premiums are not refunded. The policy has no cash-in value.
• When the policy ends: the end of the mortgage term (no later than your 70th birthday), repayment of the mortgage, loss of UK residence, death, or when you stop paying premiums.

Option: Child Cover for £3 a month - all your children

For a flat £3 a month, regardless of how many children you have, MetLife pays cash directly to you when your child breaks a bone, is admitted to a UK hospital or is diagnosed with cancer. This option is not tied to the mortgage: it is there to give the family money for the time when one parent has to stay at home with a sick child. It covers biological, adopted and step-children aged from 6 months to their 18th birthday (to their 23rd birthday if in full-time education, including a traineeship but not an apprenticeship), who are UK residents. The children do not have to live with you.

Special rules for Child Cover

• Maximum payout for a single accident to a child: £10,000 (the same as the cancer benefit), regardless of how many benefits arise from that accident.
• Hospital stay limit: 90 days per accident or illness; a readmission for the same cause counts as a continuation.
• A child can be covered by a maximum of two MortgageSafe policies (yours and your partner's); payouts are capped at that maximum.
• The option can be added and removed at any time after the policy starts; cover for the child begins on the date MetLife accepts the option.
• Cover for a child ends on their 18th birthday (23rd if in full-time education), if you or the child stop being a UK resident, when the policy ends, on death, or if premiums are not paid. You must tell MetLife when a child stops qualifying.

• Fractures caused by osteoporosis, brittle bones or any other degenerative bone disease; stress fractures, bone bruises, a broken nose.
• Soft-tissue injuries and dislocations of fingers, thumbs and toes.
• Stays in hospitals outside the UK, stays for elective surgery (other than organ donation), stays connected with pregnancy, childbirth or termination, and illness stays in the first 12 months of the option.
• Any accident or injury to the child caused directly or indirectly by you.

Pros and cons - an honest summary

As independent advisers we compare MortgageSafe with full income protection, critical illness policies and life insurance. Here is where MortgageSafe wins, and where it has its limits.

Who MortgageSafe makes most sense for

MortgageSafe compared with other solutions

What the policy does not cover - general exclusions

MetLife will not pay a benefit where the claim arises directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from:

• An accident, injury or illness you knew about, or should have known about, before the policy started. If you are unable to work on the start date, that specific cause is covered only once you have returned to work for at least one full day; unrelated causes are covered straight away.
• A cause excluded in your Policy Schedule as a result of underwriting (applies to Essential).
• Unemployment or loss of earnings not caused by an accident or illness (depending on your level).
• Shielding or self-isolation where you do not meet the definition of being unable to work.
• An unreasonable failure to seek or follow UK medical advice after noticing symptoms or an injury.
• Self-harm or attempted suicide.
• Assault or fighting (except genuine self-defence).
• Active participation in an illegal act, including road traffic offences.
• War, invasion, hostilities, civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection or coup.
• Flying other than as a passenger on a licensed airline or charter flight.
• Alcohol that caused physical or mental impairment leading to an accident; alcoholism, solvent abuse, drug taking (other than prescribed medication or as directed, not as part of addiction treatment).
• Racing (cars, motorcycles, quad bikes, motorboats and sailing boats, jet skis, horses other than dressage, show jumping and cross-country), mountaineering, outdoor rock and cliff climbing, caving and potholing, and professional sport as your main occupation and income.
• Any military service, on land, at sea or in the air.
• Working with certain materials and in certain conditions: explosives, asbestos, pneumatic drills and tunnelling equipment; diving, demolition, underground and open-cast mining, quarrying; courier work (including food delivery) by any means other than car, van, lorry or on foot, so for example by bicycle, scooter or motorcycle; work on oil and gas rigs.

Important limits and rules

• The amount of cover cannot exceed your mortgage payment by more than 10%, or £1,500 a month (whichever is lower). MetLife may ask for proof of your payment amount at claim.
• Several MortgageSafe policies above the maximum benefit: MetLife may cancel or restrict the policies with the latest start dates.
• UK residence is a condition of the policy continuing: leaving with no intention of returning within 6 months, or a continuous absence of 6 months, ends the policy. You must report changes of address, bank account and residence.
• UK medical evidence. A claim must be confirmed by a UK-registered doctor; MetLife pays for reports, examinations it requests and rehabilitation courses. Refusing access to your records or missing an examination can result in a decline.
• A claim may be assessed by the Chief Medical Officer or a clinical consultant; every claim is considered on its own merits.
• The policy cannot be transferred to another person; the lender is not a party to the contract and cannot enforce its terms.
• Sanctions: no cover where a payout would expose MetLife to UN, EU, UK or US sanctions.
• Governing law: the law of England and Wales.

How to make a claim - 3 steps

We will gladly handle the claim with you - at no extra charge. We help you gather the documents, deal with MetLife and keep track of deadlines, including when a claim is extended and when you return to work.

Frequently asked questions