Spurious claims detected by UK insurers fell by a tenth last year, a drop attributed by the industry to the knock-on effects of closing business premises and locking down drivers during pandemic restrictions.
General insurers identified 96,000 fraudulent claims in 2020, the lowest number since 2007, according to the latest data from the Association of British Insurers. Government schemes also helped to keep a lid on numbers by alleviating financial hardship, which contributes to such attempts, said Mark Allen, ABI’s chief fraud and financial crime officer.
Motor, the largest segment, had a 6 per cent fall in fraudulent claims, which the trade body put down to fewer vehicles being on the roads. The drop tracked an overall fall in claims during the pandemic that boosted the profits of car insurers.
Fraudulent travel claims also dipped as a result of the pandemic, though the ABI reported some colourful attempts, including a claimant who, when challenged, “tried to eat [the] forged documents”. Spurious liability claims were also down as businesses were forced to close their doors during lockdowns.
Ben Fletcher, director of the Insurance Fraud Bureau, a not-for-profit, credited collaboration within the industry for preventing insurance fraud “from rising as much as first predicted” during the pandemic.
The level of detected claims as a proportion of overall claims rose slightly, the ABI added, while the average fraud increased in value by 6 per cent to £12,000.