House flooded and no insurance

A neighbour had their house flooded before Xmas and are now in rented accommodation.Household insurance had lapsed and they are unemployed with a very small mortgage.

Are they entitled to any state aid?

They should contact their nearest Community Welfare Office and ask about the humanitarian aid scheme.

There is also a possibility that if they did NOT renew their house insurance AND it is a condition of the loan, that the lender has insured the property at borrowers expense. Worth a call to lender?????

Highly unlikely I'm afraid, that used to happen years ago when banks had composite monthly payments and your insurances could be amalgamated with your mortgage payment so it never lapsed really as it was not a separate payment and would continue to be debited to the mortgage regardless.

Composite repayments were outlawed some years back in the interest of transparency so all insurance payments have to be shown separately. Bank was probably notified that insurance lapsed but that would just result in a few letters or contact with customer to advise them of it.