Getting home insurance quotes when on disability benefits

Jasmine_10

I'm on contribution based ESA for a chronic health condition I've had since my 20's.

I am buying a house with the inheritance I will receive when we complete on the sale of my mother's home. My solicitor has told me I need to get buildings insurance for the new property from the point of exchange of contracts which will happen in the next few weeks. 

Will the fact I am on disability benefits make getting quotes from insurers difficult? 
Are there any insurance companies or brokers that you can recommend I contact in these circumstances?

I would imagine equality legislation means insurers 'should' treat me fairly but perhaps I'm being naive. I don't have children so I'm not a stay at home parent. (I will be informing the DWP of my change of financial circumstances).

Thanks.

McKneff

It won't make any difference. 
I've never been asked if I am on benefits or disabled and I've been insuring cars and houses over 55 years. 

la531983

Occupation can impact insurance quotes, what will you be listing as your occupation? 

Jasmine_10

I trained as a journalist and have worked in the charitable sector but last worked in 2010.

la531983

Jasmine_10 said:

I trained as a journalist and have worked in the charitable sector but last worked in 2010.

But neither are your occupation currently so stating that would be inaccurate. Not sure what you would put tbh, "unemployed" is perhaps a tad inaccurate also! 

Jasmine_10

I agree. It's a bit of a conundrum. I have seen online home insurance questionnaires that do ask about employment status. 'Not working - other' was an option but so was one relating to chronic illness.

DullGreyGuy

Just need to be careful and look at the options for job... there is normally options like "retired" or such which will be appropriate if you have no reasonable prospects of working again. 

On the plus side you are presumably there most the time and so can select that as an option (rather than vacant during the day) which should result in slightly lower premiums. 

There will be no direct questions about medical conditions. 

DJDools

Wouldn't 'homemaker' / 'housewife/person' be accurate and not confuse premiums?

Jasmine_10

So I've called a few Which? best buy companies (Churchill, NatWest, Direct Line) who just asked for my name and DOB - but I presume they must have access to lots of data about customers. Quotes offered were very high and more expensive than family members in bigger homes but with good employment records.

I then did a few online comparison searches. I was offered much lower premiums. I was asked if I was working and if not, had to choose a reason - I was honest and said I had a disability.

The companies offering me the cheaper premiums were limited to Nationwide, Hastings Direct, Admiral and Home Protect. Frontier and Intelligent Insurance had more expensive premiums that were not much cheaper than those I got by calling companies direct.

dunstonh

unemployed is used when you are actively seeking work and signed on.     not employed is where you are not actively seeking work and not signed on.   If you are never going to return to work then you can put retired.

DullGreyGuy

Jasmine_10 said:

So I've called a few Which? best buy companies (Churchill, NatWest, Direct Line) who just asked for my name and DOB - but I presume they must have access to lots of data about customers. Quotes offered were very high and more expensive than family members in bigger homes but with good employment records.

I then did a few online comparison searches. I was offered much lower premiums. I was asked if I was working and if not, had to choose a reason - I was honest and said I had a disability.

The companies offering me the cheaper premiums were limited to Nationwide, Hastings Direct, Admiral and Home Protect. Frontier and Intelligent Insurance had more expensive premiums that were not much cheaper than those I got by calling companies direct.

Insurers use differential pricing, by getting your quotes on the phone they almost certainly will be more expensive than getting the same quote online or via an aggregator like confused.com - note that as well as varying price some also vary the product by channel too (esp via aggregators), this can be as simple as if optional extras are inc or exc by default or can be totally different wording, inner limits etc.