Employment status on car insurance for carers

Jane173

Hi
I wonder if anyone can help me? My 55 year old brother has given up work to care full time for our parents. He lives with them and claims carers allowance. As he will now be the main driver of our parents' car I feel I should put the insurance in his name. I am trying to find the best description of his employment situation. “Unemployed” does not feel fair or correct, other options would be retired, voluntary worker, or carer (I assume this refers to a paid professional carer) 
Do you have any advice on how his status should be described so that he is not unreasonably disadvantaged? 
Or alternatively can I continue the insurance in my dad's name, but somehow indicate that my brother is the main driver?

Keep_pedalling

Carer seems to fit the bill perfectly, why make the assumption that it means professional career? 

TELLIT01

I would expect 'Carer' in car insurance terms to be somebody who is employed in the care sector and uses their car for that purpose.  To be safe, I would advise the OP to speak to the potential insurance company for clarification.  Somebody living in the household where they care for a person, and has no job, would be 'Unemployed' to my mind.

baser999

Carer - if he considers this to be his main employment and is being paid for it. I believe some  insurance drop-down lists separate out into private and NHS. 

Aretnap

TELLIT01 said:

I would expect 'Carer' in car insurance terms to be somebody who is employed in the care sector...

That would depend on context. If we're talking about an option on a list of occupations (nurse, teacher, accountant, carer etc) then clearly it refers to a professional carer. However if it's an option under "employment status" (employed, unemployed, retired, disability benefits, carer etc) then clearly it refers to someone who doesn't work due to caring responsibilities for a relative.

TELLIT01

Aretnap said:

TELLIT01 said:

I would expect 'Carer' in car insurance terms to be somebody who is employed in the care sector...

That would depend on context. If we're talking about an option on a list of occupations (nurse, teacher, accountant, carer etc) then clearly it refers to a professional carer. However if it's an option under "employment status" (employed, unemployed, retired, disability benefits, carer etc) then clearly it refers to someone who doesn't work due to caring responsibilities for a relative.

So if somebody is retired but spends all their time gardening would they have to put 'gardener' as their occupation?

Aretnap

TELLIT01 said:

Aretnap said:

TELLIT01 said:

I would expect 'Carer' in car insurance terms to be somebody who is employed in the care sector...

That would depend on context. If we're talking about an option on a list of occupations (nurse, teacher, accountant, carer etc) then clearly it refers to a professional carer. However if it's an option under "employment status" (employed, unemployed, retired, disability benefits, carer etc) then clearly it refers to someone who doesn't work due to caring responsibilities for a relative.

So if somebody is retired but spends all their time gardening would they have to put 'gardener' as their occupation?

If they were retired they wouldn't put any occupation down - just like they wouldn't if they wouldn't if they were a full time carer. The question is about employment status, not occupation. 

baser999

Perhaps speak to the insurance company?

Smithcom

Keep_pedalling said:

Carer seems to fit the bill perfectly, why make the assumption that it means professional career? 

Unless 'carer' is the actual paid occupation , I disagree that this should be used as the insurance-stated occupation.

If you are correct (which I do not believe that you are), the OP will also need to include business use within the policy coverage.  And (as another poster has stated), include all other household roles (gardening, cleaning, painting & decorating, general property maintenance etc). 

SC

chrisw

If he claims pension he could be retired, if he claims any unemployment benefits then he is unemployed.

Aretnap

Smithcom said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Carer seems to fit the bill perfectly, why make the assumption that it means professional career? 

Unless 'carer' is the actual paid occupation , I disagree that this should be used as the insurance-stated occupation.

If you are correct (which I do not believe that you are), the OP will also need to include business use within the policy coverage.  And (as another poster has stated), include all other household roles (gardening, cleaning, painting & decorating, general property maintenance etc). 

SC

As above, it would clearly be incorrect to put "carer"down as an occupation. To be offered a choice of occupations in the first place the OP's brother would have to describe himself as "employed", which would obviously be untrue.

OTOH if "carer"is offered as an option under employment status (ie the reason he isn't employed) it would be perfectly correct to choose it. The OP implies that he's found this as an option for employment status somewhere, but it didn't appear as an option on the comparison site I just checked. So either the OP is looking at a different comparison site to me, or else Keep_pedalling and I have misunderstood what he's saying the sites say.