Payment protection insurance (PPI) is an insurance product mostly sold as a package with other loans or overdraft products. It insures the repayment of the loan in situations where the client is unable to service the loan due to situations such as disease, accidents or death, all which result in loss of income and hence the inability to pay back what is owed.
Given the definition of PPI, a business can indeed claim PPI compensation. In such cases PPI is usually sold to the business by the financial institution as a standard addition to loans granted to the business. The benefit paid by the insurance company in the event of the business claiming PPI compensation goes to the financial institution that provided the credit facilities.
Under what circumstances then, would a business claim compensation? As in an individual’s PPI compensation claim which would revolve around situations that incapacitate the individual’s income generating ability, a business need to claim would be due to their financial incapacitation. The categories of risk that would lead to this include bankruptcy, unexpected loss of assets or difficult financial patches such as the recession.
Considering these categories of risk, it is considered quite difficult to determine how suitable the PPI is either for a business or an individual. It can also be argued that a business claim for PPI compensation can be close to meaningless. This is when the amount of credit borrowed against the repayments made in the event of a claim is put into consideration. This is because PPI typically only covers minimum credit payments for a period usually not longer than 12 months. When we consider the amounts credited to businesses by financial institutions, the claims amount to a drop in the ocean of what is owed, before the company has to come in and resume responsibility for the debt. Twelve months is surely not enough for a company to come back to its feet after a major fall that would render it unable to fulfil its financial obligations!
In conclusion, in my opinion, yes, a business can claim PPI compensation, but is it worth it?
Find out whether you were Mis-Sold PPI at ppimissold.org.uk


