Holiday claimants less than honest

by Gill Montia

Story link: Holiday claimants less than honest

Direct Line has been surveying holidaymakers who have claimed on their insurance for lost, stolen or damaged items.

More than one in 10 respondents admitted to increasing the value of their claim by 5%.

Of this group, 18% justified their actions by saying that they had not previously made a claim and were therefore somehow “owed” money their insurer.

Ten per cent bumped up the value of their claim because they believed the majority of people did the same thing and didn’t want to miss out.

Thirteen per cent wriggled out of their responsibilities by saying that their partners had formulated the fraud.

The survey revealed an honesty generation gap with only 7% of those aged over 50 willing to lie on claim forms.

However, with the younger generation different standards exists; 33% of 18 to 29 year olds admitted to embellishing their claims, while for those between 30 and 50 the figure drops back to 31%.

According to the survey, false claims involved jewellery (25%), cameras (23%), cash (14%), clothes (12%) and mobile phones (10%).

Direct Line Travel Insurance points out that it deals with thousands of travel claims each year, the majority of which are genuine.

However, the insurer wants to remind anyone contemplating committing this kind of fraud that it is committed to protecting the interests of its honest customers and does have systems and processes in place to detect fraudsters.