Thank you very much to both of you for your replies. Much appreciated. I
will have to discuss further with my mortgage provider about the lowest
possible minimum balance.

My original mortgage term when I took the life cover was 25 years. I reduced
the mortgage term to 5 years, 3 years ago after having had the mortgage for
2 years. I've effectively cut the mortgage term from 25 years down to 5 and
so the small print of any payouts is quite important, hence my slightly
paranoid skepticism.