1 in 5 Assisting Family Members With Insurance Payments

Almost 20% of Irish people have had to assist a family member with meeting the monthly car insurance payments within the past year, according to a recent survey.

In response to a poll over 8,532 Irish motorists undertaken by AA Car Insurance, 9.57% of respondents stated that they had provided regular financial assistance to a family member in order to keep their car insurance. Meanwhile, a further 7.27% of those surveyed stated that they had provided a family member with financial assist for this purpose on an infrequent or one-off basis within the past year.

“High insurance premiums are affecting families right across the country, but the challenge to keep all the cars in your household insured can be greater for some than others. For example, if one of your children has recently started learning to drive, the costs associated with this can be eye-watering and place a significant financial burden on parents to assist their child while also maintaining their own insurance,” Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs stated. “Similarly, if you have someone in your family who has recently returned from living abroad for an extended period, something that many Irish emigrants chose to do as a result of the COVID outbreak, this cohort can be faced with very high premiums until they build up a period of no-claims driving in Ireland.”

The survey also found that almost 1 in 12 motorists (7.06%) stated they experienced difficulty paying their motor insurance in recent months as a result of changes in their personal financial situation resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak. Similarly, 6.76% of those surveyed by the AA stated that they chose to take their car off the road temporarily during the lockdown due to permanent or short-term loss of work.

“While responding to the COVID-19 has been the main focus on government and the insurance industry alike in recent months, we would strongly encourage our new government to return to the issue of motor insurance reform when possible to help families across the country who may have seen a change in the financial circumstances following the outbreak,” Faughnan added.

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