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Equality long overdue?

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anotheoldgit | 13:35 Sun 18th Nov 2012 | News
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http://www.dailymail....aying-boy-racers.html

Now that young male drivers will soon have true equality with young female drivers, is it now time that Insurance companies used the increase in female insurance, so as to decrease the huge premiums that young males have been paying for years?

/// Experts fear that young women will be priced off the road if forced to pay the same high premiums as ‘boy-racers’. ///

/// Kelly Wright, 23, from Salford, Greater Manchester faces a hike from £890 a year to about £1,600. ///

/// She said: ‘I cannot afford this increase so would have to give up my car and therefore my job. It offends me that I will be in the same bracket as boy racers.’ ///

Then be prepared to be offended my dear, they are not all 'BOY RACERS' you know, but unlike you, they have been forced to pay these sums for years.
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We're nothing if not obvious :)
But seriously the point was being argued for a case by case system.
something I agree with wholeheartedly.


79 year old woman fit as a fiddle, never claimed ....so they have had thousands of pounds of her . Happy 80th Mrs Jones ...now bugger off we don't want to insure you.
In a sense the insurance business is all about descrimination.

If an insurance company believed that Chinese drivers were a greater or lesser risk would it be OK for them to descriminate on racial grounds?
Exactly JTP.

I sometimes wish I was a Mr Magoo on the roads so I could get some value from my premiums.
How much do you all pay?
"If an insurance company believed that Chinese drivers were a greater or lesser risk would it be OK for them to descriminate on racial grounds?"

Not sure about "OK" but it would make sense for them.
It's an interesting subject this, because it has implications for other areas.

For example, if it's ok for insurance, how do people feel about the police targeting certain racial groups for random searches based on risk profiling?

Equally, should fat people or certain age/sex groups pay more NI than others because statistics show they're more likely to need hospital treatment?
Yes, it should be OK for insurers to charge (say) Chinese drivers higher premiums if it can be shown that they are more likely than others to make claims. It is no different to charging motor traders more or seventeen year olds more. The trouble is that the European Equality Industry (aided and abetted by Harriet Harman’s ludicrous Equalities Act) deliberately chooses to interpret actuarial decisions based on statistical analysis as discrimination.

The idea of individual assessment (if it could be realistically managed) is nonsense:

Customer One - Forty years old, driving for twenty years with no accidents or claims but one speeding conviction. Premium £250.

Customer Two - Seventeen years old. Driving for a week. No accidents, claims or convictions. Premium (because he has fewer convictions) £200.

Insurers take all sorts of things into consideration when assessing risk and to suddenly announce that they are considered discriminatory because they recognise that one group of people is more likely to be involved in an accident than another is incongruous.

Insurance premium assessment is not, as jake suggests, about discrimination. It would be discrimination if insurers said “You are Chinese so we are charging you a higher premium”. But what they are saying is “Our statistics show that Chinese [or young/old/male/female/airline pilots/vicars or whatever] drivers are involved in far more accidents than others and so we are charging you a higher premium”. It’s a completely different proposition and provided it can be supported by appropriate data to suggest that it is discrimination shows a complete lack of understanding of both the insurance business and of discrimination.

To move to other areas as ludwig suggests is very appropriate. If the police can show that their intelligence suggests a particular group is more prone to commit crime than others then it makes absolute sense for them to direct their limited (and diminishing) resources towards that group. However, the equality industry thinks otherwise and we have the ludicrous situation where police have to waste their time stopping people about whom they have no suspicions whatsoever just to demonstrate they are being “”fair” (or perhaps more accurately, “not unfair“)..

Finally, NI is a different matter entirely. It is no longer an insurance scheme but is just a method of additional direct taxation where the proceeds do not necessarily benefit the “policyholders“. An “actuarial” approach to premiums is not appropriate any more than it would be when assessing Income Tax.
The idea of individual assessment (if it could be realistically managed) is nonsense:


Yeah of course it is .... it must be, if you think so.

There are people who make a living falsely claiming from insurance companies, if not a living, a 'nice little earner'

I am contributing my hard earned to their 'theft'
I have a Ford KA, less than 5,000 miles a year (much less) It's insured fully comp for both me and OH, £300 a year, neither of us have ever made a claim, is that expensive?
I have just read your post , New Judge and have condensed it somewhat.

"Tar them all with the same brush"
Not having a KA, I wouldn't know ummmm.
What I do know is that despite yet another year of no claims, my premium went up again.
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New Judge

/// Yes, it should be OK for insurers to charge (say) Chinese drivers higher premiums if it can be shown that they are more likely than others to make claims. ///

I can see that you are familiar with this site, why else would you have chosen Chinese drivers as your example? :0)
Mine did as well. It was £340 last year and they raised it to £450. I switched...
There's a difference between discrimination and prejudice

One particular way of looking at this is that you could say that insurance companies should be free to discriminate provided that it's based on sound statistical evidence.

If it cn be shown that Chinese drivers do represent say a genuine statistically significant lower risk then they should be free to offer lower premiums. Or of course vice versa.

I'm not saying that I'd personally agree with such a course of actuion there may well be subtlties I've not thought of but it's one possible course of action.
I think I selected Chinese drivers - I did so as I thought they would be a reasonably neutral racial group to choose
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Oh sorry AB Editor I missed your 11.47 post, so I suppose I should have directed my post addressed to New Judge to yourself.
Well its well known that women are better drivers - I am now annoyed that my premiums are going up, disgusting so it is.
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Sorry Jake, so it was you who originally introduced the Chinese into the debate.
I do hope you are not trying to imply that, New Judge, The Ed and JTP all looks the same AOG?

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