They could even skip payments entirely, as long as enough cash had accumulated in the policy to cover certain basic operating expenses.

Then he has to detour to Boston, where he grew up, to report to someone for skipping child-support payments.

Mercury skipped scheduled payments of $23 million today after defaulting on $17 million due last Friday.

Flexible mortgages allow for more freedom by the borrower to skip payments or prepay.

Yet it becomes an increasingly valuable tool as more shareholders fall on lean times and skip payments.

Mr. Fernandez accused some of looking for excuses to skip payments.

Mr. McDonald says they give him the flexibility to let residents skip payments by adding them to the principal, then charging interest on interest.

By skipping principal payments, he said, "they create additional cash flow and use the increase in the market to add the equity to the home."

The state will have to resume regular contributions, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, after skipping payments for several years.

The plan was purposely overfunded so that the state could skip payments for several years.