Mortgage protection is two different products wearing one name.
This page helps you work out which one you've been offered, and what to check in the paperwork before you decide.
About this site
Two products, one name
'Mortgage protection' is offered at the point of completion, often in the same conversation as the mortgage offer itself, and it can mean two different things. One is decreasing-term life cover, which pays a lump sum to your family if you die before the mortgage is paid off. The other is mortgage payment protection insurance, which pays your mortgage for a limited time if you cannot work. They are sold under the same name, sometimes by the same broker, and the paperwork does not always make clear which one is in front of you.
Working out which product you have been offered comes first, because the checks that matter for one tell you nothing about the other. A reader holding life cover is sent on to a site built for that question. A reader holding payment protection stays here, and works through what the cover actually promises.
Who this is for
Most people arrive in the fortnight around completion, signing a stack of documents with a decision to make before exchange. Some have already taken out payment protection and want to know whether it would pay out if they needed it, or have had a letter telling them the premium or the terms are changing. Neither group is expected to know the regulatory history behind this cover, or what terms like initial exclusion period or variation clause mean before they read them here.
Working through the paperwork
The checks set out on this site follow the same questions the regulator found were routinely skipped when this cover was sold badly: who is actually eligible, what the policy excludes, how long it pays for, and what you already hold without it. Each check is answered from your own policy document.
This site explains how the cover works and what to check. It does not sell, arrange or recommend insurance, and the decision to take out, keep or cancel a policy is one you make with the insurer or a regulated adviser.
Two products, one name
Decreasing-term life cover and mortgage payment protection insurance are both sold as 'mortgage protection'. The checks for each are different.
Built for the fortnight around completion
Written for readers deciding quickly, and for existing policyholders checking whether their cover would actually pay out.
Information, not a sale
The site explains how the cover works. It does not sell, arrange or recommend insurance.
How the figures on this site are sourced
Every rate, threshold and rule stated on this site is tied to the document it came from, with the date that document was read. A benefit threshold or a policy term can change after that date, so the source and the read date carry as much weight as the figure itself.
Figures from the regulator and from GOV.UK
Where a page quotes a Financial Conduct Authority publication or guidance, it names the publication and the section the quote is drawn from. Where a page states a Support for Mortgage Interest threshold or a Statutory Sick Pay rate, it gives the GOV.UK page and the date it was read, because the terms of these schemes are reviewed and can change.
Redress and complaints data
Mortgage payment protection insurance is one of several products the regulator groups under payment protection insurance. Where a page draws on redress or complaints data, it states which of those products the figure covers. A total across every type of payment protection says nothing on its own about mortgage payment protection.
Policy wording
Terms such as the initial exclusion period vary between insurers. Where a page shows what a term looks like in practice, it names the insurer and the policy document the wording is taken from, to illustrate the term.