Car Insurance cancelled...HELP!!!

Arfyyy

Hi, please help...i was getting car insured for my mother using confused.com, my mother is divorced, which i selected, but i made a mistake by selecting housewife as her occupation (which makes no sense anyway) Anyway nest day when policy was supposed to start the insurance company contacted me and asked me about this and i explained it was an honest mistake. anyway she asked what my mothers employment status was and only gave me option of employed or unemplyed, and i said unemployed (my mother is unemployed due to disability an option which is on confused but she did not mention) she went away and came back and said sorry but we are going to cancel this policy...due to this no one will insure my mum, the one quote i got was £4600:( Please help as i feel like am being treated like a criminal for a mistake, my mother needs her car due to her disabaility t get around. Also when i went back on confused.com, i got a quote again and chose the unemployed due to disability oprtion and the same company came back to quote me a decent price which means they do accpt this catagory of people...Please help me ... Wht can i do???

Quentin

You need to get this cancellation revoked if you can (or rather your Mother needs to if she was the policyholder) - make a complaint to the insurer that this was a mistake and she wasn't trying to deliberately mislead and take it from their reply


In the meantime she will have to SORN her car if she now has no insurance in place.

dacouch

How old is your mother, is she of retirement age by any chance?

I assume she is not actively looking for work which would not make her unemployed if it's the case

[Deleted User]

Out of interest what was the difference between the first quote and the second when you changed it from 'unemployed' to 'unemployed due to disability'.

trailingspouse

Let me get this right - a divorced woman can't be a housewife? And it matters so much that the insurers will cancel a policy because of it?

Has the policy actually been cancelled (you say they rang the day it was due to start), or have they just said that they can't cover her?

Morph4610

Arfyy - suggest you talk to a broker. Did any come up on your quotes? There's a number who are able to take a view on individual circumstances. Ring them and explain the chain of events. Common sense should prevail

EdGasket

As an aside, is it generally better (cheaper), if under retirement age but not looking for work, to say unemployed or retired? Are you allowed to say 'retired' if below the retirement age (don't want to fall into the same trap as the OP)?

[Deleted User]

Why did they contact you btw, that's very unusual is it not?

forgotmyname

trailingspouse wrote: »

Let me get this right - a divorced woman can't be a housewife? And it matters so much that the insurers will cancel a policy because of it?

Has the policy actually been cancelled (you say they rang the day it was due to start), or have they just said that they can't cover her?

It depends on her income i guess. She could be a housewife if she has an income that is not benefits.
If she claims JSA then she is unemployed.

If its ESA or similar then choose the umemployed due to disability or similar.

Whilst off work sick my renewal was up, I asked my insurer what I should put for employment. I was still employed but on sick pay only.

They said if i was on benefits them it would be unemployed.

ThinkingOutLoud_2

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Why did they contact you btw, that's very unusual is it not?

Did they hold previous information on her that the latest now conflict with?

BUT as suggested, this insurer does seem to have been a bit heavy handed whether that is:-
- your honest mistake
- not helping to define her situation correctly (think you are saying that is not looking for work due to her disability)

I reckon a call to try to unpick the reason why they cancelled (which you should note carefully) and if need be ask to speak to a superior and to make a formal complaint may help.

I wonder if the first agent was a little "overzealous" or got a bad decision given to her from misunderstood circumstances. There is a hint of inadvertent discrimination / being overly clever with words here which they may try to rectify.

If not / meantime, I agree - approach a broker who will for sure try to help and be able to get past insurer intransigence over an apparently "wrongly cancelled" policy.

It is known to answer the question raised that insurers view unemployed people as higher risk (possibly can't afford to maintain cars so well, driving while more stressed and so on being their inferences) which claims stats apparently support. That does not sound relevant to your Mum who badly needs a her car to run perfectly and is not looking for work?

[Deleted User]

You need to get the cancellation cancelled. Write to them to complain, if that fails try the FSO. Otherwise your mother is screwed for life on insurance.