Restricted hours car insurance news
05/10/2010
EU calls for gender equity
Young women drivers may soon have even more reasons to seek out the benefits of restricted hours car insurance if informal recommendations by the European Court of Justice are passed into law.
Currently, it is generally true that women drivers are able to obtain cheaper quotes than their male counterparts. However, should judges apply EU-based anti-discrimination rules to motor insurance, women's superior safety records will mean nothing to the premium price formulas of UK insurers, which would make it imperative for many women that they think imaginatively about motor cover, with many expected to switch to restricted hours car insurance policies.
Conservative MEP Ashley Fox opposes the changes and has branded them as "madness".
"This opinion, if taken on board by the European Court of Justice, will spell the end of cheap car insurance deals for women and cause the loss of many jobs in this sector of the insurance business," he said.
Adding, "The decision to afford cheaper car insurance to women is not based on discriminating factors but on solid statistics and fact. Women have fewer accidents than men and claim less than men. This opinion abjectly fails to take these crucial factors into consideration. It is simply madness to wipe out a whole market on what is effectively the whim of the advocate general. Of course it goes without saying that if this opinion becomes EU Law it will mean higher premiums for everyone."
However, some say that the link between gender and driving behaviour is, despite the statistical impression, an invalid one. Instead, say proponents of the EU action, personal and individual factors are far more relevant, which, it has been noted, represents the very essence of the philosophy behind restricted hours car insurance.
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