Another Cluster and Other Fun

So here we are on day nine of a cluster. The current score is that I've had migraine or migraine-like symptoms on: Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, Monday and again today (Thursday). So that's five days out of nine blown. On top of this I had a bad experience yesterday with my PHI insurers which left me in a bad state too.

What set that off was my frustration is the continuation of of the saga I wrote about back in September. It turned out that this wasn't the end of it after all. Although they had acknowledged the error they had made there was a more serious underlying issue. I do some work, when I can, and I earn a little bit of money doing that. It's not a lot, but it keeps me amused and my brain active. Phoenix know about it. It's allowed under the terms of the policy and I get "proportionate benefit" based on the shortfall with my pre-disability earnings. Fair enough.

Now this policy is index linked, so the amount they pay me rises over time with inflation. However the figure for my pre-disability earnings doesn't. The consequence of this is that if my earnings from my current employment also rise in line with inflation then that gets closer to my pre-disability earnings as they're not index linked so over time the amount I get from Phoenix falls rather than rising with inflation.

So it's clearly not an index linked policy if I'm on proportionate benefit.

This is not what I was sold. Now there's two possibilities here. Either the way Phoenix are calculating proportionate benefit is wrong (I think the terms and conditions as written are ambiguous, but I'm not an actuary or a lawyer) or the Co-Op, my IFA, mis-sold me the policy. I could also argue that the sales blurb from Swiss Life (as Phoenix was then) is misleading. So I'm not even sure if this is a mis-selling claim or an insurance dispute.

Initially I took this to my IFA. Rob B, the new bloke I was allocated (as the advisor I had before had moved on) was very helpful. I also had some concerns about my pensions and my savings and he gave me good advice on those. But he was also going to talk to Phoenix about the calculation and see what he could sort out.

This started before Christmas and it didn't seem to be getting anywhere. We're now at the start of March and I was getting desperate so yesterday I phoned Phoenix myself. This was a mistake.

I spoke to the lady Rob said he had spoken to. She said she didn't remember speaking to him. At all. I was confused by this but in the end I decided to run with it and explained the situation to her. She put me on hold and then transferred me to an underwriter without warning me first so I was then in at the deep end trying to explain it to him. He did understand what I was saying but said that was the standard way to calculate proportionate benefit and I had a mis-selling claim if anything.

I put the phone down. I was pretty angry and distressed by then. I then phoned Rob and left a message on his answering machine asking him to phone me ASAP. I figured I should give him a chance to explain himself before I escalated it to head office.

And then I thought about it some more. This woman I'd spoken to was exactly as Rob had described to me. So I phoned her back. Was she absolutely sure she'd not spoken to Rob. "You know as soon as I transferred you I remembered that I had spoken to Mr B - I speak to so many people". So Rob was off the hook.

A few minutes later Rob himself phoned. He'd spoken to Phoenix too.

We talked it over. He said he need to talk to the underwriter who's actually handling my case, who he's spoken to before. This chap is out until Tuesday but he's booked a call with him then. He also said that if it turned out to be a mis-selling case he would still help, even though it would be the Co-Op I would be claiming against. He told me to leave it with him and try not to get stressed about it.

But by then it was too late. I was in tears and speechless. We signed off.

For a bloke of 45 who used to take no prisoners on the phone to customers and suppliers this is all a bit embarrassing really as it's Not What Men Do. But it does fit the pattern: anything stressful seems to make me unwell, this is just taking it one stage further.

How I'm meant to concentrate on work I've no idea. And frankly why this gives me any incentive to work I don't know. My policy was written for my job as Technical Director of a software house, a job I can no longer do. Perhaps I should give up trying to work and just say "I can't do the job I've got cover for". Would that make Phoenix happier I wonder? I think not. It's not what I want either.