Click closes GI business after payment row
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Non-advised protection firm Click has shut its general insurance business, resulting in 80 job losses, with GI staff getting no pay or commission for December.
The GI arm, which sold home insurance from the company’s Northwich office in Cheshire, was closed down on December 22.
Click says it took the decision to close the business after it failed to receive a £132,000 commission payment from Paymentshield, its only home insurance provider.
Click claims that the payment was due to be made on December 22.
Paymentshield would not divulge to Money Marketing the reasons why the payment was not made.
Paymentshield chief executive Tim Johnson says: “It is puzzling how Click management could blame the collapse of a £10m business on one of their suppliers - their employees are suffering enough without being misinformed. We are very sorry to hear about good people losing their jobs just before Christmas.”
Click joint managing director Ray Flannery says the company plans to take legal action against Paymentshield for the money it says it is owed.
Click joint managing director Steve Teague says: “At no point has Paymentshield admitted why it would not continue a partnership which has taken 16 months to build, was successful, and kept 80 people gainfully employed. Click is due a commission pipeline of around £260,000 as well as an ongoing renewal commission stream totalling over £1m.”
In November, Click cut over 50 jobs in its Farnham and Manchester offices as part of a company restructure which saw it stop selling term insurance. The December wave of job cuts, in addition to staff turnover, has seen the number of Click staff plunge from 200 in November to around 30 currently.
Click’s debt management, payment protection insurance, and lead-generation businesses and its Click Money/Insurancewide arm continue to trade.
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Readers' comments (5)
Industry Insider | 6 Jan 2011 10:05 am
Click operates a debt management arm - ironic or what?
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Anonymous | 6 Jan 2011 10:49 pm
I feel very sorry for the staff being laid off before Christmas without pay! Click's directors should be ashamed of theirselves!! Some people in the industry would call it Karma!
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Anonymous | 7 Jan 2011 10:24 am
Why wont Paymentshield say why it stopped paying commission? Is this the same case when they stopped paying firms renewal commission a couple of years ago?
When will it be a case that providers like these start to reduce their commissions to adviser firms or start to go direct to the public and really turn their back on the broker?
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ginge | 12 Jan 2011 0:20 am
I'm still laughing at the incorrect figures for current employees with click and job cuts! 30 people employed, try 11, 2 of which are the directors. 50 job cuts in november, try 150! These figures are so inaccurate it's laughable. Just click trying to play it down and make it seem less horrific than it actually is. Joke isn't quite the word! I wish them luck!
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Anonymous | 31 Jan 2011 8:03 pm
How the mighty fall, it was about time the "management" had a wake up call to how they run their so called business, you simply, and i say this quite deliberately, cant work in a market where the MOST important relationship is with the providers that pay you, then start churning business with another provider - i wonder why Click had a re-broke team working directly into the existing Fortis book?.......
Only a matter of time, just a shame people didnt see it coming......two people to blame for that one.....
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