Learning that your child has a serious illness is already a shock in the life of a family. A tragedy which can sometimes lead to serious financial difficulties. Because if parents have to stop working, the expenses continue to accumulate. But an opinion from the CCSF, expected on December 11, could provide some relief to families with a property loan.
First there is the operation, then resuscitation, then therapy with very heavy care… No parent can leave their child at these times, we want to be close to them. However, very quickly, we wonder how we are going to do financially. Added to the announcements of the diagnoses is the thought that we must continue to assume all the burdens of everyday life and monthly mortgage payments. Like thousands of families every year, Lise saw her life turned upside down the day she was diagnosed with her daughter’s illness.
One morning, I left my office in a hurry to take my daughter to the hospital, and I was not able to return there for almost two months, rewinds this general practitioner, who had been in her office for two years at that time. . Her spouse, newly hired in an aeronautics company, can only take unpaid leave. Obviously, household income falls. However, I had professional insurance, health insurance, borrower insurance for my real estate loan. I had everything, I really thought I was covered for all scenarios. But no insurance, both professional and private, covered our child’s illness. Today, there is abandonment of families of seriously ill children.
Monthly credit payments that are sometimes very hard to bear
The charges remain. In addition to the rent from their professional activity and the various expenses of daily life, the family must also repay their loans. We had two real estate loans, one for a rental property which was repaid through the rent received, but also the loan for our main residence. As we are executives, with comfortable incomes for both, the bank had granted us substantial credits, with a debt ratio of 33%. If, after request, the bank offers to defer the monthly mortgage payments, this modification is expensive.
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I was not able to resume more than half-time during the entire period of our child’s illness. We had to have our monthly loan payments financed by my parents, who gave us an acknowledgment of debt. We were very lucky to be able to do this, it allowed us to breathe financially. We held on thanks to the generosity of the people around us, but not all families in our situation are as lucky., explains Lise. Because if parents of seriously ill children can benefit from the daily parental presence allowance (AJPP) after filling out a file, this allowance cannot exceed 1373.68 euros per month.
And Lise is not an isolated case. I recently saw a couple of restaurateurs who had a seriously ill child. Yet, all summer, the husband had to go to work in the restaurant rather than be with him. You shouldn’t have to choose between keeping your business afloat and holding the hand of your child at the end of life, judges the doctor, who joined the Growing Without Cancer Federation to help families in the same situation.
We shouldn’t have to choose between keeping our business alive and holding the hand of our child at the end of life.
But the situation could soon change. This is the fight led by Stphane Vedrenne, founder of the Eva pour la vie association and president of the Growing up Without Cancer Federation. For more than a year, he campaigns for the monthly mortgage payments to be covered by the insurer as soon as the parents begin to benefit from parental leave.
One of the difficulties that comes up the most for parents of seriously ill children is paying their monthly mortgage payments when they learn of a child’s illness, explains Stphane Vedrenne. Based on this observation, I met Wilfried Briand, who is director of underwriting at CNP Assurances. We changed and after study, they realized that the impact of covering the monthly payments of these families would be of the order of 0.003%.
Based on this observation, Banque Postale, which works with CNP Assurances, decided a year ago to implement a sick child guarantee in its loan insurance contracts. Since then, all real estate loan contracts taken out with La Banque Postale include this guarantee at no extra cost, which covers 50% of the monthly loan payment, up to a limit of 4,000 euros per month, for a maximum of 28 months. I am very proud that we managed to convince the insurance and banking players, and I salute the humanity of CNP Assurances on this subject, continues the founder of Eva pour la vie. The objective now is for all other banks and insurance companies to do the same.
Real estate loan: we must take charge of the credit of families of seriously ill children
With the help of Horizons MP Paul Christophe, Stephane Vedrenne approached the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) so that the insurance world agrees to evolve on the subject. The latter will meet on December 12, to endorse a decision which could therefore give some breathing space to many families in difficulty. Our wish, this is because banks and insurers agree to cover the entire amount of the monthly mortgage paymentover a defined period of time, for parents who stop working to look after their children, explains Stphane Vedrenne.
In a household, housing is often the main expense. If, at the time of the implementation of the AJPP, the monthly mortgage payment is covered by the insurer, it would be a huge relief for families, says Eise.
If the monthly mortgage payment is covered by the insurer, it would be a huge relief for families
Many other things remain to be done. lise campaigns for a development that would help the liberal professions and the self-employed. In the case of a child’s illness, health provisions are not triggered either. There are undoubtedly things changing about professional insurance contracts, to allow professional expenses to be covered in this situation.
Stphane Vedrenne, for his part, would like drug manufacturers to become more aware. They were asked to set up a fund to make efforts on the development of medicines for children. We were told that the child was not an interesting market. For all cancers specific to children, there has been no improvement in treatments in recent decades, because manufacturers refuse to take an interest in them.