http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/...amily-20120923
Roof over the head for surviving family
Insurance plan pays off outstanding housing loans for CPF members after death
Published on Sep 23, 2012
By Melissa Tan
When Mr Han died in February, he left not only his family but also a substantial mortgage.
Mr Han (not his real name), 64, still owed $125,000 in housing loans for a five-room flat, where he had lived with his wife and daughter, according to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board.
But the grieving family did not have to give up its home or pay a cent for the mortgage.
Instead, the outstanding loan amount was paid in full by the CPF Board.
As Mr Han had been using his CPF account to pay off his mortgage, he had been covered under an insurance plan called the Home Protection Scheme since 1996.
This insurance plan is compulsory for those who use their CPF accounts to pay off housing loans for HDB flats.
It is meant to protect the families of these members from losing their homes if the insured CPF members become permanently incapacitated or die.
Mr Han's insurance cover had lapsed last December.
But after his daughter appealed to the CPF Board, it conducted a check and found that Mr Han had been permanently incapacitated since June last year, it told The Sunday Times.
For this reason, the CPF Board said, it reinstated Mr Han's cover and paid the family's $125,000 claim in full.
Slightly over 1,000 claims under this insurance plan were approved last year, amounting to $91.1 million. Of those claims, two out of three were for CPF members who had died.
The remaining third was for CPF members who had become permanently incapacitated.
The insurance plan covered slightly over 631,000 CPF members as at last December for a total assured sum of nearly $84.2 billion. The premiums for the Home Protection Scheme depend on several factors.
These include the outstanding loan amount, loan repayment period and age of the CPF member, among others.
For instance, a 28-year-old woman who takes out an HDB loan of $500,000 for 20 years would have to pay an estimated premium of $269 a year.
A 28-year-old man with the exact same loan would have to pay an estimated $305.50 a year.
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Originally Posted by radha08
