Your personal finance questions – Changing health cover mid-year, insurance for an unoccupied house and pension entitlements

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Charlie Weston Twitter Email

September 18 2021 02:30 AM

Q I have very basic health insurance in place and I have been told I will need to have knee surgery. Can I change my cover mid-year and if yes, how long does it take for the new cover to kick in?

A In terms of changing cover before your renewal date, this depends on which insurer you are currently with, according to Dermot Goode to TotalHealthCover.ie.

Both Laya and Irish Life Health will permit changes mid-year but VHI will only allow you to amend your cover from your renewal date, the broker said.

The second point to note is the upgrade rule which means that if you already have an existing condition and you upgrade your cover to a higher plan, the additional benefits on this new plan will not kick in for a further two years for any existing medical conditions such as the knee problem.

However, you will still be covered under your existing basic plan for any treatment relating to the knee condition, Mr Goode said.

Q My father suffered a stroke recently and has been in a rehabilitation facility for the past three weeks. It remains to be seen if he will be able to return home in the long term. He lived alone. I am concerned about the house being vacant for such an extended period. I contacted the insurer just to make sure the house insurance was up to date, and was told that in a week’s time the property would only be covered for fire. Surely there’s something I can do to protect my father’s home and his valuables?

A It’s standard practice among insurers that if a property is unoccupied for more the 30 consecutive days the only cover offered will be fire only and liability only, according to the managing director of Insuremyhouse.ie Jonathan Hehir.

There is not a whole lot you can do about this, he added. An unoccupied-property insurance policy is one option, but it will still only cover fire, liability, and fire brigade charges.

Contents cover could be added to this policy, but again the contents would be covered for fire damage only. Ideally, someone would stay in the house to enable the home insurance policy to continue uninterrupted.

You would still need to notify the insurer of this, but it should not be an issue, Mr Hehir said.

Q I wondered if you might be able to offer some advice for a friend of mine. She has a non-contributory pension and has recently received inheritance money following the sale of her mother's house who passed away some time ago. Her own house is in dire need of repair. An extension is in urgent need of roof removal, the floor is gone etc. The surveyor she employed said it would be best to knock down the extension and rebuild it from scratch. The whole house also needs retro-fitting as the energy bills are enormous. The problem is that she is only entitled to €20,000 without her pension entitlements being reduced. She is concerned that her pension will be removed altogether once she declares her inheritance to the social welfare office. Do you know if urgent needs such as a house renovation would be allowed and not impact on her pension?

A The non-contributory State pension is a means-tested payment for people aged 66 and over, habitually residing in the State, who do not qualify for a contributory State pension, or who only qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension based on their social insurance record.

Following an award of the non-contributory State pension, claimants are obliged to notify the Department of Social Protection, in a timely manner, of any change in their circumstances that may impact on their pension entitlement.

The department says that in this case, the claimant must notify it of the date and amount of the inheritance received. The means test applied will include the inheritance as part of the capital assessment in addition to any other means held, in order to determine her continuing eligibility for pension, and where eligible, her appropriate weekly payment rate, it said.

The claimant can request to have her means reviewed at any time to take account of changes, such as a reduction in capital held, including expenditure in relation to works on her home.

When declaring her inheritance, the claimant should also provide any information she wishes the deciding officer to take into account while reviewing her entitlement, including her planned home improvement works, the department said.

Your personal finance questions – Changing health cover mid-year, insurance for an unoccupied house and pension entitlements

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