My wife and I had booked a holiday to Zambia in August last year but unfortunately my wifes' contract of employment was cancelled in December and I had already taken a career break. When it came time to make the final payment in March we could not afford it so had to cancel the holiday.

We were charged £3,500 in cancellation charges as per the contract and submitted a claim to our travel insurance company who have come back to us saying as my wifes contract was cancelled rather than being made redundant they are not willing to pay the cancellation charges.

In the insurance contract it does not specify whether cancellation of contract is covered, neither is it included in the exclusions as not being covered. I accept we cannot claim under redundancy as technically my wife was not made redundant, but should we be able to claim under cancellation & curtailment.

I should add that my wife was on a long term temporary contract at her place of work.

Any advice/suggestions appreciated.

DJ

As the policy wording cannot be viewed online, then I would say that if the policy wording does not specifically state cover for this situation or exclude it, then you have to take this up using the Insurers complaints process. If after 8 weeks this Insurers don't resolve, then you can ask the FOS to look into it.

Personally I don't think it is fair to expect the Insurers to cover this risk. Because your wife was on a temporary contract, the risk of this being stopped was something that you were aware of, but you did not approach an Insurers to specifically cover the risk, of you not being able enjoy the trip and having to pay cancellation charges. You are now expecting a general Travel Insurance to pay the cancellation charges for a known risk. I am not sure the FOS would see this as reasonable to expect.