Why is insurance so high? Stats and sources

biko

This thread is for looking at stats and sources from insurers themselves as to why insurance is so high, and getting higher.
Please don't post unsubstantiated claims, find and use sources.

This is from insurer Caeva O’Callaghan

There have been many reasons for this massive increase. There is though, one over-riding and primary reason and that is the fact that insurance companies have been losing money on motor insurance in Ireland for six of the last seven years. There are many contributing factors as to why this is the case.

Other contributing factors are fraud, uninsured drivers and claims inflation.
Claims inflation is the increasing cost of claims and the cost of claims is soaring at a frighteningly fast rate

At the committee this morning, the SAI’s Gary Dunne said that in the past decade and a half car insurance premiums fell and the industry endured some tough changes.
“Part of the recent premium increases reflects the need to restore pricing to a level that provides better security for claim payments,” he said.

“And over that period we’ve seen a 42% increase in the amount of injury board awards,” he added.
Dunne argued that insurance companies have been required to increase their cash reserves in expectation of payouts in the future.

MarkR

Came across this as an example of why insurance costs are rising.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/judge-cannot-believe-a-word-from-plaintiffs-in-insurance-case-1.2986572

180k sought in a single low speed accident. This type of stuff is probably happening every day of the week. We're not going to get any voluntary transparency from the insurance companies, as they'll want to protect their information.

I don't know are they just trying to pad out their balance sheets, like the banks, or whether the prices we are paying now are actually a fair representation of the costs incurred by the insurance companies.

Here's a link to a Seanad debate where it discusses the possible causes for increase. I had assumed that uninsured drivers were the biggest factor, but that only seems to be adding €30 to the averae policy, so not even 5% of mine!

https://www.kildarestreet.com/sendebates/?gid=2017-03-22a.273