Car insurance claims at seven-year high

28 May 2019

Car insurance payouts have reached their highest level in seven years, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The industry trade body carried out research into claims and found there were 16,000 for theft for the three months of this year, which equated to one every eight minutes.

A total of £108 million - £1.2 million a day - was paid out as a result, up 22 per cent on the same period in 2018.

The new figures for the first quarter were higher than for any three-month period since 2012.

According to the ABI, the rise in the cost of claims was partly due to the greater expense of repairing today's more technically advanced car designs.

It also attributed the apparent growth in car theft to an increase in keyless car crime, although it did not have any specific figures on what proportion of claims related to this.

However, there was some good news for motorists in among the gloom, as the ABI said the average price for vehicle insurance was £466, its lowest level for two years despite the rise in payouts.

This was put down to new reforms aiming to stamp out bogus claims for whiplash injuries, which had previously been pushing premiums up for all drivers.

ABI's motor insurance policy adviser Laurenz Gerger said: "The continued growth in car crime must be reversed. Car security has come on leaps and bounds but needs to keep pace with the ingenuity of car criminals."

Indeed, the Home Office states car theft has risen by 50 per cent in the past five years.

Some brands are already acting to do something about the growing issue of keyless car theft, with Ford revealing last month it had devised a new type of security technology based around a motion sensor placed inside its key fobs.

However, with technology improving to the extent that cars may one day be locked and unlocked via smartphone apps, manufacturers may find they need to divert their attention to hack-proof systems as opposed to just better keys.