Financial support 'should be available to everyone'
07 November 2007
Financial institutions have a responsibility to their customers to "reduce financial exclusion" of tenants and those people with low incomes, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has claimed.
The ABI insisted that the relevance and availability of financial products is extended to everyone through dedicated schemes. This is especially important in regards to household contents insurance which is often overlooked, ABI explained.
Initiatives operated by sheltered accommodation associations and local councils such as Insure and Rent enable those on low incomes to insure their contents.
Malcolm Tarling, ABI general insurance press officer said: "We have a duty to ensure that people have understood the benefits of the product and we have a duty to try and extend the availability of that product.
"It's not just insurance providers either; other financial institutions have that duty as well. We want to ensure that we can increase our reach and reduce financial exclusion.
"What we are trying to do is target those people who traditionally feel that they are outside of insurance - those with low incomes for example who are paradoxically the most vulnerable to crime.
Commenting on the Insure and Rent scheme Mr Tarling explained that these local authority-led schemes allow council tenants in sheltered accommodation to have access to contents insurance with basic policies, "providing a minimum level of cover with a cheaper insurance price that you might not be able to get elsewhere on the market".
According to the ABI, 35 per cent of those in low-income households have no insurance, yet it is often this demographic that are at greater risk of crime, fire and flooding.
