My disabled husband claimed on his life assurance which is linked to our mortgage. We are 23 years into a 25 year mortgage. He put in his claim 11 months ago and at the time was quoted the figure of £40k if successful. He has just had his claim granted but for the reduced figure of £30k. The reduction is directly due to the time that has passed between initial claim and the decision to grant it. We have gone over the small print and nowhere does it say that the payout is based on the value at the time of granting the claim rather than when the claim was first made. We are of course pleased that the claim has been successful but a £10K difference is quite substantial when the delays were not our fault. We complained about four months ago about the amount time this was taking, and they gave us a cheque for £300 a week ago 'for our inconvenience' as well as a break down of the timings which showed that they were directly responsible for around four months of delays, with our doctor responsible for around three months of delays (not passing on paperwork or late replies). We were advised that we must keep on paying the premiums of £70pcm during the claim which we have done (we have never defaulted in 23 years). Is this normal practice? We were always aware of the sliding scale of payout, but as we have an email from them at the beginning, giving the figure of £40k, with no mention of a reduced figure further down the line, we feel that this isn't fair. Do we have grounds to appeal to the ombudsman, or should we just take the money and be grateful?