A workshop between the IFoA and Fair4All Finance has produced concrete recommendations for improving insurance access among vulnerable populations. These include plans for a pilot minimum value contents insurance product.
The IFoA and Fair4All Finance ran a productive workshop at Staple Inn on 11 March about developing insurance and protection solutions for vulnerable people with specific housing requirements. The session explored what insurance people need to protect their possessions, feel secure and build their resilience.
This is an urgent matter because levels of cover are known to be very low. According to Aviva and WPI Economics, only 37% of UK renters in low-income households have contents insurance.
The workshop was also addressing a recommendation of our Great Risk Transfer campaign – to consider how minimum levels of insurance protection could build financial resilience for vulnerable groups.
At the workshop, IFoA members with insurance expertise worked with housing and financial inclusion charities and other organisations on ways to increase access to appropriate insurance products and improve consumer outcomes. They considered in detail the needs of specific vulnerable groups, including young people, those with physical and mental health conditions, and homeless people.
The workshop identified key recommendations, including some addressed to the government and the insurance sector. These are described in detail in Fair4All Finance’s summary: ‘Contents Insurance and the Great Risk Transfer’.
The recommendations also included a programme of further action for the IFoA:
The IFoA will lead the work to define a minimum value contents insurance product to meet the needs of low-income consumers and people with specific housing needs. This will involve collaboration with Fair4All Finance, the insurance sector, consumer groups and people with lived experience.
Fair4All Finance will facilitate a pilot minimum value contents insurance product. This will be offered by housing associations to their tenants on an opt-out basis. The IFoA will support Fair4All Finance in this work, alongside insurers, brokers, the Financial Conduct Authority, housing associations and others.
The pilot product is essential to test if there is improved take up and outcomes for renters in social housing. The pilot study will depend on having a plausible product (or set of products) to test. We are in discussions with the IFoA’s General Insurance Board and the members who attended the workshop about how to develop an appropriate product in a timely way. This may involve setting up a dedicated ‘task and finish’ working party. We welcome ideas and expressions of interest from members.
