Sheila’s fury as car cover bill rockets from £873 to £2k in less than a year
INSURANCE firms are under pressure to justify high prices for older drivers after the actress Sheila Hancock was hit by an ‘absurd’ 157 per cent increase to her car premium.
The 82-year-old star of stage and screen has gone to war with Admiral Insurance after it tried to put her motor premium up from £873.29 a year to £2,246.79.
The actress, who has a Mini Cooper, insists she is a careful driver and has never made a claim in more than 60 years on the road.
Miss Hancock, who has reinvented herself in recent years as a best-selling author, musical star and TV talent show judge, believes the increase was because of her age.
‘If you look for insurance over the age of 80 there are hardly any companies that will even touch it,’ she said. ‘Yet I would be pretty sure that if you look at the statistics there are far fewer accidents involving older people than there are with butch 30-year-olds who work in the City.’
She said the huge rises in insurance for older people could mean they can no longer afford to drive, making them virtual prisoners in their own homes.
‘What is going to happen with the ageing population?’ she said. ‘If I was stuck in the country and couldn’t afford my insurance, and a lot of people couldn’t, what do you do? It’s absurd.’
The widow, whose husband John Thaw, star of Inspector Morse, died in 2002, said there should be independent tests for drivers aged over 80 to demonstrate competence. In 2013, the London- based star was in a road accident which was found to be the other driver’s fault.
In a second incident, her car was scraped while driving in 2014. She did not claim in either case.
She wrote to Admiral about the insurance increase and cited the fact that she had ‘never, ever claimed on any insurance since I started driving 63 years ago’.
The case highlights the risk surrounding the automatic renewal of motor and other types of insurance. Consumers who don’t pay attention to renewal notices sent out by their insurance companies may only discover their premiums have gone up sharply once larger direct debits disappear from their accounts.
There is also a concern that insurance companies tend to penalise long-standing customers with higher annual premiums, while offering cheaper terms to the new customers they are trying to attract.
Admiral denied the actress’s age is behind the rise and said it looks at 50 rating factors when calculating new premiums.
Bizarrely, it said because she had been involved in two accidents that were not her fault, it took the view she was more likely to be involved in a crash and make a claim in the future.
A spokesman said: ‘ From our claims data we have found that customers involved in a non-fault incident often go on to make a fault claim in the future.’
He said car insurance premiums for all drivers of all ages have risen in the past year.
The actress has now moved her motor cover to Cornmarket Insurance, which charged her £1,073.83.
‘Prisoners in their own homes’