Insurance news

Bogus Brits bump up holiday claims

8 September, 2007

Research from Direct Line Travel Insurance reveals that many travellers exaggerate and falsify their ‘holiday losses’ with more than one in 10 admitting to increasing the value of their claim and 5 per cent to adding extra items.

More than 10 per cent of Britons have made a travel insurance claim and 15 per cent admit they have stretched the truth. A ‘white lie’ or exaggeration on an insurance claim is fraud, yet many fail to realize the severity of their actions.

To justify these claims and clear their conscience, two in 10 say they are owed the money because they haven’t claimed before.

Others substantiate their dishonesty by saying everyone else claims so why shouldn’t they.

Furthermore, this dishonest minority aren’t doing things by halves either – 16 per cent are enhancing claims by £200 and 6 per cent by over £500.

Worryingly, the younger generation are the worst offenders with 33 per cent of 18-24 year olds admitting to telling white lies on claim forms compared to 21 per cnet of 30 – 50’s and 7 per cent of over 50’s.

Chris Price, business manager at Direct Line Travel Insurance, said: “As a leading insurer we deal with thousands of travel claims a year, the majority of which are genuine. However, it’s worrying to see from the results of the research that some consumers appear to underestimate the consequences of their actions. The telling of a ‘little white lie’ is fraud however they choose to justify it.

“Contemplating committing fraud is a serious matter and we would urge anyone about to claim on their travel insurance not to take this lightly. In order to protect the interests of our honest, genuine customers we do have systems and processes in place designed to detect these fraudsters.”