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Motor insurer Aviva has warned clients to not misrepresent their private particulars to “save a number of kilos” on their insurance policies as cost-of-living pressures deepen.
The corporate — one of many greatest motor underwriters within the nation, protecting greater than 2mn personal vehicles — stated instances of fraudulent or suspect coverage functions had risen by 16 per cent year-on-year between January and October, to greater than 23,300.
Nearly all of these instances, it stated, concerned clients who modified particulars about themselves, their automotive or driving historical past to safe cheaper cowl. For instance, mendacity about their age, the quantity of penalty factors they maintain, or saying their automotive is stored in a storage in a single day when it’s not.
“Motorists ought to keep away from the temptation to vary their particulars in [an] try to avoid wasting a number of kilos, because the penalties for coverage fraud may be expensive and add strain to motor insurance coverage premiums for all motorists,” stated Aviva’s head of motor underwriting Iain Hamilton.
He added that the “overwhelming majority of our clients are sincere, and now we have an obligation to be sure that we do every thing we will to minimise the impression of fraud on their motor insurance coverage premiums”.
Round 15 per cent of coverage fraud detected by the corporate got here via so-called ghost brokers, the place an unauthorised individual acts as an middleman between the client and the insurer and provides deceptive data. Utilizing such a dealer might result in a set penalty or a automotive being seized, Aviva stated.
The insurer’s analysis suggests one in 4 individuals have been approached on-line by somebody providing low-cost automotive insurance coverage. And that one in 5 individuals would contemplate shopping for low-cost insurance coverage from a person on social media, even when they’d doubts about whether or not the individual was a real dealer.
“As strain mounts on the price of dwelling, motor insurance coverage clients must be cautious of insurance coverage affords from unclear, unsolicited or uncommon sources — particularly on-line messaging platforms,” it stated.
Motor insurance coverage is the most typical sort of fraud throughout the private insurance coverage business. The most recent information recommend that financial pressures may be resulting in greater ranges of buyer fraud, after a predicted rise through the Covid pandemic by no means got here to cross. Total, instances of insurance coverage fraud fell in 2021.
The Monetary Conduct Authority has raised considerations with insurers in regards to the impression that the price of dwelling disaster might have on insurance coverage consumers normally, together with that they may in the reduction of or cancel their cowl. It July it stated corporations ought to “contemplate what additional assist they’ll supply” to these battling premiums.
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