I work for a national housebuilder in their surveying dept. Last week i applied for income protection but have been turned down. No reason was give but my credit history is perfect. What can i do?

During the recession, insurers providing insurance cover against being made unemployed, are running scared. They are refusing to insure people working in industries, and with specific employers, which the insurance companies assess as being likely to make large redundancies. For example, anyone working for The Royal Bank od Scotland will have big problems getting insurance cover, and i'm afraid that also goes for construction and house building companies. As you work for a house builder, I'm afraid that's going to be your answer.

What can you do? Probably very little now. You could have got insurance some 12 months ago but now's too late. Your only slim chance is to ask an insurance broker to shop around for you and explain that you are in the surveying dept (you don't say what you do) not actually doing building work.

Best of luck.