Eight in 10 (81%) of homeowners say mortgage advisers should routinely discuss how customers would manage their mortgage payments if they become unemployed, research from Walsham Brothers reveals.

Research from the provider of mortgage payment protection insurance solutions found that 58% of respondents say they expect redundancy risk to increase within the next five years, rising to 61% for ages 46 to 61 and 63% for ages 62 to 80.

However, among those respondents who have used or arranged a mortgage, only 26% recall their adviser having that conversation.

That said, 23% said they couldn’t remember and 20% didn’t use a mortgage adviser.

Meanwhile, the findings also reveal a lack of awareness of all the relevant protection options available.

In particular, almost three in five (56%) said they weren’t aware that insurance covering involuntary redundancy/unemployment could be purchased on its own, without accident or sickness cover.

Only 10% have insurance to protect their income and payments if they were made redundant and of those who had considered taking out redundancy cover but decided against it, cost represented the main barrier (32%), followed by ‘didn’t think I needed it’ (17%).

Walsham Brothers senior manager product and propositions Jamie Leong says: “Consumers have told us they want advisers to highlight the risk of redundancy to them, at a time when that risk feels very real. But few recall this happening; either clear that it didn’t, or not clear either way. Plus, a fifth simply didn’t use a mortgage adviser.”

“There are educational and awareness needs on many levels here; from the value of taking advice when making a home purchase – probably the biggest purchase we make it our lifetime – to advisers discussing all risks, grounding them in reality and making it clear that redundancy cover is low-cost.“