Burgess says Govt and quango workers can't find cover
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Former British Insurance managing director Simon Burgess says some unemployment protection providers are refusing to cover Government workers and employees of quangos such as the FSA.
Burgess, who left the insurer to set up his own US protection provider with wife Sara, says he has seen a blacklist outlining which professions some providers deem uninsurable for short-term unemployment cover contracts, either standalone or as part of accident, sickness and unemployment cover.
The list includes civil service workers, regional and local government staff, employees of quangos as well as the armed forces, police, fire and rescue services.
He says: “Excluding these professions is outrageous. It is a disgraceful state of affairs when people who are working hard to benefit the UK economy are excluded from cover. Running blacklists is not acting in the spirit of insurance.”
A Unison spokeswoman says: “This should not happen. It is completely unfair if firms are doing this.”
Highclere Financial Services partner Alan Lakey says: “Behaviour, such as refusing redundancy cover to those considered higher risk, perpetuates the belief that insurers always look for ways of avoiding payouts.”
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Readers' comments (1)
Thought they had thought (but hadn't) tank | 19 Mar 2010 2:38 pm
Come on Alan Lakey, you sould know better than that!
The basic principle of insurance is that each policyholder pays a premium into the pool commensurate with the level of risk introduced to the pool.
Hopefully, a Conservative Government will result in the weeding out of "jobsworths" paid by the public purse. Having worked in local government and been an elected member too, I can tell you that there are plenty of those.
If the sector is likely to suffer serious unemployment issues, then it's only right that they should either pay an increased premium commensurate with that higher risk, if cover is commercially available at all.
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