In the Queen’s Speech, she announced a civil liability bill to tighten the rules on whiplash claims. The bill is intended to address the growing culture of compensation and reduce both the frequency and severity of whiplash claims by banning offers to settle claims without the support of medical evidence and introducing a new fixed tariff of compensation for whiplash injuries with a duration of up to two years.
Selim Cavanagh, Vice-President, Insurance UK and Ireland at LexisNexis Risk Solutions said: “The insurance industry has made great strides pre-legislation with products and services to address the problem of separating valid personal injury claims from those that are gaming the system or committing fraud. Working with our insurer partners we have developed telematics to increase product reach with collision detection notifying insurers of a collision, the location and severity. With data linking products we can also provide details of fraud networks and claim history”.
“We welcome the civil liability bill to help communicate these issues with the general public and provide a single reference-point for clarifying compensation rules”.
“The drive for a better understanding of the customer’s risk at the point of quote has never been more important. By gaining a clearer view of a predicted loss cost using contributory and public data sets, insurance providers have the power to lower their costs and deliver fairer premiums to customers. For example, a correlation between motor policy history and loss cost has now been established through contributory databases, giving insurers a much better picture of risk at point of quote.
“In addition, we know that with telematics, younger drivers pay around 41 per cent less for their insurance because telematics directly communicates driver risk, and most young people are willing to listen to feedback and modify their behaviour. Telematics data can also support claims investigations to fend off staged or exaggerated claims. The good news is that telematics insurance has become much easier and cost-effective for brokers and insurers to offer, enabling them to broaden their target market and reach drivers who pay upwards of £500 a year in motor insurance premiums – making up approximately 10m drivers or 30% of the market.
“The new bill is an important move but the sector can also take some control using customer data to reduce risk and deliver fairer premiums.”
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