Age discrimination - young drivers

AlisonCVS

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/14774

I have a petition running on the Governments petitions website - please sign if you believe that insnurance for young drivers is based on discrimination in line with the gender "discrimination" dealt with recently.

The European Court of Justice banned risk assessment based on a person’s sex. Surely then the same principal should be applied to age discriminatiom. Age discrimination law states that it exists to ensure “measures taken to improve the position of young people” Surely the issue is around the safety of drivers, not their age or gender, and there are a number of tracking and monitoring gadgets used by some insurers to determine the safety of drivers and the risks each one poses. New drivers of any age can pose an increased risk. The current method of calculating insurance Ageist just as it was Sexist not long ago? European legislation surely can’t argue the case for one and not the other. ACTION : ASSESS INDIVIDUALS NOT STEREOTYPES Ensure that if one discrimination law is applied to a service then ALL discrimination laws are applied - otherwise this would be discrimination!

Please sign and forward this petition.

dunstonh

please sign if you believe that insnurance for young drivers is based on discrimination in line with the gender "discrimination" dealt with recently.

I dont think it is so wont be signing.

I have spent my time paying high premiums and for good reason. Now that I have earned lower premiums, I don't see why those that haven't should have their risk passed to me any more than it already is.

InsideInsurance

Clarify your "ACTION" - given the average young person probably now gets circa 100 quotes (uses 2 aggregators each with 50 insurers on their panel), how do you propose an 18 year old with less than 12 months history is assessed on an individual basis?

The problem with the gender issue was there is an already passed piece of european legislation saying you cannot discriminate between men and women in the provision of goods/ services. It was argued, mainly successfully, that by differential pricing between men and women was discriminatory in their provision of the service. If you read the details of the case the court basically admits its hands were tied.

Unless you know of a piece of already passed EU legislation which states all people of the same age must be treated the same way then you are, thankfully, not going to get anywhere

opinions4u

Perhaps young people should drive better if they want lower premiums.

ASSESS INDIVIDUALS NOT STEREOTYPES

I prefer "assess risk based on accurate statistical facts".

After one claim in 26 years (and that was Mrs o4u driving) I really don't want to have to start subsidising higher risk drivers.

mikey72

opinions4u wrote: »

Perhaps young people should drive better if they want lower premiums.

I prefer "assess risk based on accurate statistical facts".

After one claim in 26 years (and that was Mrs o4u driving) I really don't want to have to start subsidising higher risk drivers.

In a few more years you be getting back into the high risk group again anyway, and then the young won't want to subsidise you.

ariba10

Premiums are based on risk and not age.

gravitytolls

I'd love to sign, I agree that young driver premiums are extortionate, and completely unrealistic in many instances. However, insurance companies will get their swag however they have to do it, which means all our premiums will rise and rise and rise.

Insurance is a racket, which bears little relation to actual costs (40% increase estimated due to referrals), however, we cannot drive without, so over a barrel we're had.

vax2002

gravitytolls wrote: »

however, we cannot drive without, so over a barrel we're had.

Not exactly true, you can insure yourself, just need to lodge £100,000 underwriting with the bank of England and you can issue your own certificates.
If you dont have £100.000 then you will have to pay someone else to issue a certificate and for that they rate your risk.

opinions4u

mikey72 wrote: »

In a few more years you be getting back into the high risk group again anyway, and then the young won't want to subsidise you.

Hopefully my marbles will remain strong enough to tell me when to stop driving. That will doubtless be a decision reached by a mix of self-assesement of competence and economic realities around the cost of driving.

Paying for a taxi for the odd visit to Sainsburys when I'm greyer and older should be cheaper than managing a car anyway.

As for the self-assessment of driving, my performance this morning was diabolical. No idea how anybody on my route survived. So it might not be as far off as I thought ...

AlisonCVS

opinions4u wrote: »

Perhaps young people should drive better if they want lower premiums.

I prefer "assess risk based on accurate statistical facts".

After one claim in 26 years (and that was Mrs o4u driving) I really don't want to have to start subsidising higher risk drivers.

I have not had an accident in 22 years and dont want to subsidise inferior male drivers but I am going to have to!!!


if you are a woman you will be subsidising men who are statistically worse. My point is that if you can not discriminate between men and women even though statistics show that they should be assessed differenctly then surely to not do the same with age, disabilty, reace, religion etc etc. is equally wrong

AlisonCVS

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Clarify your "ACTION" - given the average young person probably now gets circa 100 quotes (uses 2 aggregators each with 50 insurers on their panel), how do you propose an 18 year old with less than 12 months history is assessed on an individual basis?

The problem with the gender issue was there is an already passed piece of european legislation saying you cannot discriminate between men and women in the provision of goods/ services. It was argued, mainly successfully, that by differential pricing between men and women was discriminatory in their provision of the service. If you read the details of the case the court basically admits its hands were tied.

Unless you know of a piece of already passed EU legislation which states all people of the same age must be treated the same way then you are, thankfully, not going to get anywhere

a) There is legislation about age discrimination and there are specific points in it around make things more equitable for young people.

b) There are meters/guages that can be added to cars that can monitir average speeds, driving habbits, times of the night/day the car is used etc which would allow an insurance company to lay down stipulations about the usage of the car for the driver.

c) The same can be said of a 40+ person who has just passed their test. Age sometimes has nothing to do with experience - that 40+ driver is just as inexperienced in driving as the 18 year old. AND some of the worst drivers I have seen on the road have been 30+!!!