UK Insurance Fraud On The Rise Despite More Detection!

We’ve predicting it here at Insurance Blog for quite some time and now its official..
Insurance Fraud is on the rise again!
A symptom of every recession, the difference this time is that detection rates of Insurance Fraud are also on the increase, but that doesn’t seem to be bothering those intent on criminal deceit, according to the latest figures released today by the ABI (Association of British Insurers).

They Never Learn!

You could not make it up but some false claimants did.
Insurers are detecting more fraudulent claims than ever: over 2,500 worth £18 million every week

A gymnast with back trouble, a flying toilet roll holder, an invented wedding engagement, a fake photograph and an invisible wall were among the record number of fraudulent insurance claims detected by insurers in 2010, state the ABI.

Solicitors Are To Blame For Car Insurance Premium Hikes!

Many people have been in shock this year when their annual car insurance renewal document lands on the doormat. Premiums have risen by as much as a third this year if reports by some major UK car insurers are to be believed. This has even led to former Home and Foreign Secretary Blackburn MP Jack Straw to write to the Times today calling for a reform to the motor insurance industry.

So what has gone so wrong? Why are we paying more for motor cover?

Well first we were told it was uninsured drivers, two million of them apparently, that were pushing up the costs of car insurance because the Insurance Companies were having to pay more into the collective fund, administered by the Motor Insurance Bureau, to cover the costs of claims against drivers with no cover.

A Brief History of Insurance: Part Six- The First Insurance Company

The World’s First Insurance company -The Fire Office and a man called Halley
In the last article in this series we had arrived at the seventeenth century after a whistle-stop tour of the continuous evolution of insurance across the last 7,000 years or so!
We had just discovered that what is generally regarded as the worlds first ever Insurance company – The Fire Office, was created from the ashes of the Great Fire of London and it is with the Fire Office that we shall continue our journey through the history of insurance….
‘The Fire Office’ was opened by Nicholas Barbon not long after the Great Fire had ravaged some 13,000 homes across the English capital. Barbon himself is acknowledged as being one of the first proponents of the free market and a leading economist and financial speculator of the time – he also had a ruthless eye for a business opportunity.
Predictably as the Fire Office flourished so other companies soon mirrored his business model and a precedent had now been created for insurance to evolve once more. Providing insurance was no longer limited to wealthy private individuals, but instead a developing industry, with dedicated companies establishing specialist commercial insurance and personal insurance products.