Tag Archives: Insurance Premium Tax

Our Open Letter to the Treasury, don’t increase IPT!

With rumors of the government increasing Insurance Premium Tax again, we sent an open letter to our MP, Mims Davies. Continually increasing the tax on socially positive motor & home insurance acts as a disincentive to buy, hits the poorest hardest & shouldn’t be a cash cow for the Treasury:

Mims Davies
The House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

October 2018

Dear Mims Davies MP

Airsports Insurance Bureau is a firm that provides insurance in your constituency. Our firm helps to arrange insurance for business and consumers throughout the area and in our capacity as agent of the customer; we act in the best interests of insurance buyers, finding them the best policy for their needs.

We are greatly concerned by the sudden and sharp increases in Insurance Premium Tax that have happened since November 2015 – doubling the rate from 6% to 12%. Further, the Chancellor has indicated that further increases are not only possible – but are likely.

Insurance Premium Tax was introduced in 1993. Before this, the purchase of insurance attracted no tax. Insurance allows people to take responsibility for themselves and their assets, and actually reduces the burden on the state should things go wrong.

Our trade body, The British Insurance Brokers’ Association, has made a comprehensive representation to HM Treasury, calling for a freeze in the rate of Insurance Premium Tax: https://bit.ly/2xWD7p3

As a regressive tax, Insurance Premium Tax penalises those who pay more for their insurance. This includes groups such as young drivers and communities in flood risk areas. For example, the tax contribution for a £1,500 young driver’s policy has increased from £90 to £180 in the last 24 months alone. With young drivers more likely to drive without insurance, any further increases are likely to have an impact on the number of uninsured drivers on the UK’s roads.

HMRC’s policy objective IPT01300 states “that IPT should make the required contribution to UK Government revenue while minimising the effect on the take up of insurance”. It is clear such significant increases are indeed likely to be to the detriment of uptake.

In your capacity as our local MP, I would be very grateful if you could take up this issue with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mel Stride ahead of the Budget this month, calling for a freeze in any further increases for the term of this Parliament.

Yours sincerely,

Airsports Insurance Bureau

Motor Insurance Premiums Rise

CarOver the past couple of years there has been an upward trend in the cost of insuring motor vehicles. This is possibly something that you have noticed when receiving your renewal notice and, if so, has hopefully triggered you to seek comparative quotations through the likes of ourselves to see if we can find you a better deal from another provider.

Well, the Association of British Insurers has recently produced the ABI Premium Tracker that monitors what the cost of motor insurance has been over an extended period of time. Apparently, the average premium paid for fully comprehensive cover throughout 2017 was £481 per annum. This was an increase of 9% in comparison to the cost 12 months ago that, in monetary terms, equated to a rise of £40 per annum.

Another disturbing statistic is the fact that the average cost of insuring a motor vehicle increased by a staggering 29% since back in 2014.

There are a number of factors that have caused this increase in the cost of motor insurance. For instance, repair costs of vehicles have gone up, there has been a rise in the number of people seeking compensation for whiplash injuries, Insurance Premium Tax has gone up and there has been a change in the calculation of compensation payouts.IPT

The ABI is encouraging the Government to stop increasing the Insurance Premium Tax, make changes to how claims for lower value claims for whiplash are dealt with and also to look at the Ogden Discount Rate which is used to work out what compensation someone should receive who has suffered a significant injury as a result of a road traffic accident. These things are all with a view to potentially reducing how much someone pays for their motor insurance.

So, is there anything that you can do to mitigate such an increase? Well, you may wish to consider shopping around for cheaper cover but if you do, make sure that the level of cover meets your needs.

Here at AIB Insurance, we have been able to help arrange car insurance for a number of customers at a lower premium than their existing insurer has been charging them so why not give us a call on 02380 268 351 to discuss your requirements and obtain a quotation without any obligation.

What Happened To Car Insurance Premiums In 2016?

Unfortunately, the cost of car insurance has been rising for many motorists. If you own a car then you are legally obliged to make sure that it is insured unless it is declared SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) and kept off the public road network.

Insurance Premiums IncreasingOne of the price comparison websites called Confused.com has been producing its car insurance price index for 10 years on a quarterly basis. According to that index, the average cost of fully comprehensive car insurance has increased by £95 per annum (14%) to £767 per annum in the 12 months to the end of 2016. In fact, just in the 4th quarter of 2016, such premiums rose by an average of 4% that, in monetary terms, is an extra £30 per annum. The annual increase was due to a number of factors including things like the amount paid out for whiplash claims and Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) rising.

The figure of £767 is the highest that motorists have had to pay since around the middle of 2012.

Younger drivers are, on average, paying the most for their cover with someone of 17 years of age having to find an average of £2,112 per annum. In some cases, that is probably more than some young motorists would pay for a used car. Most drivers who are at least 60 years of age are, on average, finding that their premiums are less than £500 per annum although, if you are 68, you could find yourself having to find an average of £515 per annum.2016 Budget

Most areas of the UK have seen premiums go up. The cheapest region was the Scottish Borders in which premiums averaged £531 per annum in the 4th quarter of last year. Inner London motorist are paying the most for car insurance where comprehensive car insurance premiums rose by an average of £152 per annum in the 12 months to December 2016 to an average of £1,237 per annum.

Regrettably, not enough policyholders bother to see if they can obtain their cover cheaper elsewhere. So, when you receive your renewal notice from your existing insurer, why not get in touch with us here at AIB Insurance on 02380 268 351 and let us see if we can help you save some money on your car insurance.

Chancellor Announces Another Increase In Insurance Premium Tax (IPT)

Many of you will be aware that most general insurance policy premiums are subject to Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) at 10%. The sort of policies this applies to include the likes of, motor, home, private health insurance and pet insurance.

That’s all about to change as the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in his Autumn Statement of a few days ago that this tax was being increased by 2% to 12% with effect from the 1st June 2017. This will be the third time this tax has been increased since November 2015. On the 1st November last year IPT went up from 6% to 9.5% – a rise of 3.5% and then it increased by 0.5% to 10% on the 1st October 2016.IPT Increase

This means that, if you are currently paying say £500 per annum for your motor insurance, say £400 per annum for your home insurance, say £300 per annum for your pet insurance and say £1,000 per annum for your private health cover then you would see your total premiums for these policies increase by £44 per annum which, if you pay monthly, means that you would have to find an extra £3.66 per month. This increase would exceed the forecast saving of £40 per annum that motorists may make if certain changes proposed by the Government were made to how whiplash claims are dealt with as referred to in our news article of the 17th November 2016.

This announcement has not gone down well with many in the insurance industry including the Association of British Insurers (ABI) that is concerned how hard it will hit some people. Of course, this increase will particularly affect those who are paying the highest premiums for their cover such as young drivers and motorists living in some inner city areas. Unfortunately, this rise may result in more uninsured drivers on our roads.

IPT IncreaseThe ABI estimate that in excess of 50 million policies will be affected by this increase. Apparently, in Europe, the UK will have the 6th largest rate for IPT. It is estimated that by 2018/2019 Insurance Premium Tax will add around £6 billion to the Government’s “coffers”. The 20% IPT rate used for what some consider to be luxury insurance products including travel insurance, mechanical/electrical appliances insurance and even spacecraft insurance has remained unchanged.

The government will argue that the general cost of IPT throughout Europe is 19% but this does not take into account that the average motor insurance premium paid by UK’s drivers is significantly higher to begin with. In fact, the UK has the fourth most expensive average motor insurance premium in the world (behind the US, Austria and Germany).

It is to be hoped that this announcement does not encourage some policyholders to cancel any of their insurance policies as they no doubt provide valuable cover. In the case of motor insurance, it is a legal requirement that motorised vehicles are insured unless they are kept off the public road system and declared SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification).

Here at AIB Insurance, whilst we can obviously do nothing to prevent this increase in IPT, we will continue as we always have done to endeavour to provide our customers with competitive quotations for their insurance policies from the extensive panel of insurers at our disposal.