The Scotsman has reported some astounding figures from a new survey which suggests that 1.6 million Brits have had insurance claims turned down in the past 5 years.
The unpaid claims came on health, income protection and life insurance policies, and averaged out at over £26,000 per claim – a whopping total of just under £44million.
The article doesn’t give any reason for these failures, but it’s likely that a fair few are down to “non-disclosure” – this is where you fail to mention something when you make your application that might be a factor in your claim .
For example, if you lie on your life insurance application when asked if you are a smoker or not, you may find you get a lower premium, yet in the event of a claim, it will probably be easy to prove that at the time of applying you were puffing away on 20 a day. The life insurer will refuse to pay out.
The moral of this is to ensure that you are as honest as possible on the application, declaring your exact weight, height, alcohol consumption etc. – there’s no point in omitting any information or fudging the figures because you feel a little guilty or want a cheaper premium -having insurance under false information is as bad as having o insurance at all.
Also, make sure you check the small-print on your policy before committing to it – check there’s nothing in there that might trip you up in the event of a claim.