Everyone knows that if you have a family and a mortgage, then you should have life insurance to repay the outstanding mortgage if you died - as that would leave the home debt free for the family to continue to live in. However, research has revealed that nearly two-thirds of homeowners with mortgages have no life cover - and at least half of those that do, haven't enough cover to fully repay the mortgage.

The extent of homeowners' financial exposure in the event of their death raises fresh worries that, quite apart from apathy and ignorance, the UK's recession is squeezing life insuranceout of many people's personal budgets.

While the figures include those homeowners who do not have dependants or family - and for whom cheap life insurance can be viewed as an unnecessary expense - the implications are potentially ruinous for the majority of borrowers. If the person who pays all or a significant part of the montly mortgage repayment were to die, and as a result the mortgage does not get paid, then the lender can eventually repossess the house and the family will become homeless. Adequate life insurance would avoid this.

But the fact is that over the past few years Britons have increasingly shunned life insurance. The report into the UK's life insurance industry from Swiss Re, the worlds largest reinsurer found that over the last four years, sales of 'term' life insurance fell by 23 per cent. Yet during this period it is estimated that the price of the cheapest life cover fell by 3 per cent.

The life insurance companies clearly have an interest in reversing falling sales but as there is a high social cost of having insufficient life cover, consumer bodies too have become more vocal in their concern at our reluctance to buy life insurance. Indeed the consumer magazine, Which? has moved life cover to the top of its priority list and warned that too many of homeowners were complacent.

A Which? Spokesperson said, 'Buying life cover with a mortgage makes us think about dying - and, of course, that's still something few of us are especially keen to contemplate. It's always easy to think, I'll do it later, but if the family depends upon someone financially, life insurance is essential. And the younger you are when you buy it, the cheaper it is.'

The research highlighted that one of the biggest recurring problems is the suspicion that many borrowers' have resulting from perceived 'hard sell techniques' used by lenders, life company salesmen, and mortgage brokers. It would seem that borrowers often consider life and critical illness insurance as yet another service they are being sold - and see it as an extra cost they could do without.

And with the onset of the recession homeowners are looking for ways of reducing costs not adding to them. Too many of us just don't have the cash to spare. There is also the danger that when the UK economy eventually does recover life insurance isn't picked up again.

It is therefore not surprising that insurers are keen to change our attitude towards life cover, but know they have to tiptoe around the negative overtones concerning death. It is not an easy subject to communicate.

Another point to consider is that it can be a mistake just to buy enough cover simply to pay off the mortgage. If your family is to be financially secure you need to make sure that the insurance will pay out sufficient cash to cover the familys other outgoings in the medium-term as well.