True cost of failed finance companies

Jack and Ngaire Williams may lose their home. Photo BoP Times

Karina Williams has watched her parents' health deteriorate rapidly since they lost more than $200,000 in the Blue Chip collapse.

Williams said her father Jack, 84, had a heart attack last Christmas when he and wife Ngaire, 72, received a Property Law Act notice that their house would be sold to pay off their debt.

"It's the stress that's taking its toll," Williams said. "The financial costs are becoming like a creeping cancer that's affecting these people.

"There's been attention drawn to the fact of the collapse of these companies but not the collapse of health inflicted because of the waiting."

Ngaire Williams said she was staying positive. Her husband was released from hospital last Friday, 11 days after suffering an aneurism she attributes largely to stress.