Just to add to my post above � you will no doubt have worked out what a nice little earner for the insurance industry, these Payment Protection policies are.
For many people working for multinational companies � unless the whole operation goes bully up, there will almost certainly be an enhanced voluntary redundancy on offer, when they reduce the workforce. The company I work for publishes its voluntary redundancy scheme � even though nothing is in the offing � I know exactly how much I would get in the event of me being made voluntarily redundant.
To make a rough calculation of how good these policies are; divide your monthly mortgage payment by your monthly PPI, and that is the number of policy holders (not claiming) required to support each claimant (not allowing for any profit/operational costs to the insurer). You can then make a judgment call as to whether you think the policy is worth having.
As an example, imagine you are paying a monthly mortgage of �1,000 and your PPI is �50/month, 1 in 20 or 5% would be needing to be claimants (for the scheme to break even) � even in these tough times, I doubt the claimant rate would be 1 in 50 � given as you have found out, the exclusions applicable to the policies.