Over eight million homeowners took out an endowment mortgage to buy their homes, the product first being sold on a grand scale in 1983. Thus many (having the typical 25-year mortgage term), are starting to mature, and in big numbers, as of March this year.

The problem with endowment mortgages is that homeowners needed to get decent investment returns over the period of the home loan in order to repay their mortgage, this being done in one big lump sum at the end of the term. The traditional, (safer) capital repayment mortgages required homeowners to pay their loan, little by little, throughout the term, so that at the end they owed nothing.

The government, regulators and the financial services sector say that the problem of endowment mortgages has largely been solved - and that the numbers of people who will really suffer should be small, however, there will be a significant minority of people who will have problems repaying their mortgages at the end of the loan term.

Luckily, most lenders are liable to say "Pay us when you can." on the basis that they still have the home as security, but it is annoying and worrying to homeowners who have been paying the interest throughout the period of the loan as well as the endowment premiums that were supposed to clear their mortgage.

Most experts close to the FSA and the government believe that there is no little chance of these issues being reoponed, and as the Conservatives presided over the boom in endowment mortgages in the Eighties and early Nineties, they would score a huge own goal by highlighting the issue, so they are not going to raise it either.

For people with a shortfall on their endowment home loan, the advice is to:-

1) Extend your mortgage term , a proposition that most lenders will likely be very open to, especially if you contact them a few months before your loan matures, repaying the unpaid capital over this extended term.

2) Consider whether you are eligible to make a complaint on the grounds of unsuitability or unaffordability to the person who sold you the policy. Remember to make a complaint even if you are time-barred, but explaining that 'exceptional circumstances' prevented you complaining before. Depression or more serious conditions, supported by a medical note, may be seen as being exceptional - but be aware that the financial ombudsman appears to be taking a very tough line on this issue.

3) Check to see if your insurer offers any guarantees, as some are guaranteeing to make good any shortfalls to meet the mortgage amount. Norwich Union alone has set aside £1bn to meet some or all of the shortfalls policy-holders had on 1 January 2000.

4) Do keep abreast of the situation as it develops, consumer power and lobbying have worked in the past, so it is conceivable that some more assistance might be made available if sufficient people complain.