During the course of the year, there has been a 12.4% overall drop in home insurance claims
The home insurance industry is predicted to save around £368m over the course of 2020 due to the national lockdown restrictions, imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
This is according to recent research by comparison platform HelloSafe.
The study further found that home insurance claims in the UK have fallen by 12.4% over 2020, while there has been a 13.3% decrease this year specifically in theft and burglary claims – HelloSafe suggested this is because more people were at home because of the lockdown measures.
Additionally, UK home insurers have saved around £99.8m in water claim payouts.
Claims drop off
As more individuals remained at home, this mitigated a range of home insurance claims, said HelloSafe.
The firm found that the number of burglaries dropped by 37% during the first lockdown, between March and May, and are further expected to fall by 13.3% by the end of 2020, saving UK home insurers around £47.6m.
As for water-related claims, HelloSafe said these are expected to decline by 13% this year, compared to 2019, amounting to a £99.8m saving on payouts for this kind of damage.
Regionally, Greater London could reap the highest savings for home insurance in 2020 (£54m), followed by South East England (£52m).
At the other end of the scale, Northern Ireland is expected to make the lowest savings on home insurance payouts (£10m), as is the North East of England (£14.7m).
Returning savings
Antoine Fruchard, chief executive of Hello-Safe.co.uk, said on the research: “It is not a surprise to see that home insurance claims have decreased in the significant way over 2020, with many Britons stuck at home during a year where very restrictive measures were taken to stop the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Indeed, as we observed with car or health insurance products, the payouts made by home insurers have gone down. However, until now, the industry has taken no decision to give back some of the savings made to the policyholders.
“This is a questionable position, when the impact of the economic crisis is just starting to strike most of the British households and could last for years.
“Moreover, many workers will now make the decision to work from home, fully or partially. For those remote workers, insurers will surely have to adapt and propose new solutions. Indeed, the future of home insurance is still to create”.
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