Monday 1 December 2008

Concerns about insurance for ex-offenders


In Mid November UNLOCK The National Association of Reformed Offenders issued a press statement about the problems of ex-offenders with criminal conviction and their families obtaining insurance. Philip Suter of jml Insurance (who is wrting this blog) has been acting as an introducer for Delite Insurance for several months has concerns about restrictions insurance companies appear to impose on ex offenders.
Following the UNLOCK release in November Delite Insurance Agency listed several scenarios that they had been involved in for ex offenders and their families.
Examples are: Some specialist brokers decline some former offenders on home insurance
I am currently serving an extended licence. When I was released from prison I looked for 'sympathetic' insurers. When I rang round, there was only one broker who would quote for insurance for my offence type. The others refused to state why.

The premium was about 10 times more than my premium was before conviction (over £1000!). Since I have no mortgage, I am able to choose not to have home insurance, but would obviously prefer to be insured if possible.

Your website states that most of your brokers have no exclusions. Could you please confirm that they will accept me and could you please send me a list of contact details? Thank you for providing a much needed service.
Mother rejected by insurer after 22 years, forsupporting her son after prison
My son served 2 years in prison following a sentence of 4 years and since March 2007 has been living with me. The company which manages my buildings insurance contacted me to ask if I wanted a quote for contents insurance and as I was interested they asked me some questions regarding my existing building insurance, one of which was 'has anyone living in your household been convicted of a criminal offence'.

I answered honestly and they then asked for details. I refused as I did not see the relevance but they insisted and said that they would report the conversation to their superiors.

Two days later I received a letter asking me for details of my son's conviction as it was a condition of my insurance policy. I complied and received a letter this week cancelling my insurance from 1st January 2008.

I have been paying insurance for my house with the same company since I took out my mortgage 22 years ago and have only made two small claims in all that time. My son lived with me until he was 20, he is now 24 and his conviction was his first offence but the insurance company are not concerned with the details. They have a policy and are just implementing it.
The above are just two cases. I was very concerned when I looked at some of the situations illustrated. The fact that someone with a minor criminal conviction living at his / her parent’s house could suddenly find that come the time the parent went to renew their insurance an insurance company could after many years might no longer want to cover them because of the family member.
At Delite Insurance Agency Neil Cook has commented We are here to help those gain insurance cover through our contacts when many providers cannot help at premiums that can be far lower than you would expect

Neil has gone onto say “We treat every client as a individual and can offer cover no matter what problems they have including those who live in Northern Ireland, this makes our service truly unique.

We have helped thousands of people with convictions get their lives back together not just by arranging cover after disclosure but also with positive support and advice. No longer do you have take cover after avoiding mentioning the convictions then praying nothing goes wrong.”
More information is Here

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