Matthew Maxwell Scott, executive director of ACSO, has criticised the ABI after the trade body issued its latest premium tracker today (29 July).
He said: “The ABI’s inconsistency on personal injury is breathtaking. Today, Mark Shepherd (ABI spokesperson), responded to rising motor insurance premiums by stating: “This makes it more important than ever that the whiplash reforms in the Civil Liability Act are implemented on time and in full.”
“Yet on 29 April, when the ABI published the last premium tracker, Mr Shepherd was hailing the falling cost of motor insurance as “great news for motorists after several years of rising premiums, which largely reflected the UK’s costly personal injury compensation system. As the industry promised, motorists are now beginning to see the benefits of the personal injury reforms recently enacted.”
Mr Maxwell Scott said: “How can the recently enacted personal injury reforms deliver falling premiums in April, and then by not being implemented be accountable for rising premiums in August?
“The inconsistency of the ABI when it comes to personal injury must be called out. Two weeks ago, insurers learned they will make hundreds of millions of pounds from the recent change to the discount rate (a mechanism to determine compensation for serious injuries), yet Mr Shepherd notes that seriously injured customers are now responsible for rising motor premiums. The new rate, he says: “will further add to insurers’ costs, and put more pressure on premiums, especially for higher risks, such as young drivers.”
Mr Maxwell Scott added: “And on smaller injury claims, after heralding the impact of the whiplash reforms for reducing premiums in April, customers suffering minor injuries from road traffic accidents are now also responsible for rising premiums. The message to the long-suffering motorist from the ABI seems to boil down to: ‘injured people are responsible for motor insurance being more expensive.’
Our message to the ABI is: ’That is why we pay for compulsory motor insurance – that’s why you exist.”
Be the first to comment