Single income families exposed to death and disability Health Insurance and Protection Magazine
31.08.11
Families choosing to rely on single, unprotected, breadwinner
Childcare costs are pushing families to rely on a single income, according to a new report, leaving them exposed to the heightened risk of a single breadwinner being unable to earn.
Parents with two children aged one and seven years old are paying childcare costs of, on average, £970 or 43% of the average household income for a committed or married couple, according to research from Aviva. With the sums failing to add up for some families, the insurer reports that 32,000 more women have chosen to look after their family rather than seek employment since this time last year.
Aviva is warning that this decision to rely on a single breadwinner can be a risky one if financial protection is not taken out. Its research shows that just 40% of families have life insurance, 15% have critical illness insurance and just 10% have income protection.
Of the 6,000 people surveyed by Aviva, just five per cent said they felt completely protected while almost half (49%) said they felt unprotected or completely unprotected.
Source:
bLife Insurance/b – Women Furious Over Insurer Gene Testing | YodZiaN b.../b
Thousands of women with family histories of breast and ovarian cancer could pay higher insurance premiums or even be denied cover altogether under new proposals from the insurance industry.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is expected to lodge an application for permission for its members to ask women whether they have been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.
The faulty BRCA genes are responsible for about five per cent of the 41,700 new cases of breast cancer and 10 per cent of ovarian cancers diagnosed in Britain each year.
If the insurers are granted permission by the Genetics and Insurance Committee (the organisation that advises the Government on the issue), women who have tested positive could be forced to pay higher premiums. Some companies may even refuse high value life or critical illness insurance.
A notice published on the GIC?s website said, ?The Committee expects that the Association of British Insurers will submit in late 2006/2007 four revised and updated applications for the use of adverse results from predictive genetic tests of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (breast/ovarian cancer) in helping to determine insurance premiums for life and critical illness insurance.?
At present, the only predictive genetic test the committee has allowed insurance companies to ask about is for Huntington’s Disease. This is because of the lack of environmental influences on its development.
However, across Europe, several countries have banned insurers from using genetic tests to decide premiums. Also, in 2005, a voluntary agreement to avoid using such tests by British insurance companies was extended until 2011.
Under this agreement, insurers can ask potential customers only about genetic testing results for Huntington’s Disease. However, they can only ask for the information for policies that are worth more than ?500,000 for life insurance, more than ?300,000 for critical illness and more than ?30,000 a year for payment protection.
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