Claims staff transfered to Direct Group to process motor and commercial policies
UK General Insurance (UKGI) has singed a deal with Direct Group to outsource its non-complex commercial and motor claims, resulting in a number of staff being transfered over.
UK General Claims staff who currently work in Manchester and are affected by the agreement will be offered new roles in Direct Group at Elland, Halifax, under TUPE regulations.
UKGI claims director Nicola Lightowler said the decision was part of an ongoing strategicreview aimed at making UK General one of the UK’s leading niche and specialist insurers among iindependent brokers.
She said the agreement with Direct Group will deliver further efficiencies withoutcompromising service. “Brokers have told us that rapid and efficient claims processing is a top priorityfor them, and we are confident Direct Group can help us achieve this for our commoditised claims.”
Lightowler said UK General will retain a small team of technical claims experts to deal with all liability and high value property and motor claims.
“Our technical claims experts will now be able to fully focus on these complex claims, which will further improve UK General’s service to brokers in thiskey area,” she said.
Direct Group chief executive Derek Coles said the agreement built on an earlier partnershipdeal (signed in February 2009) between his company and Longhawk before the merger in June last year between Longhawk and Primary General to form UK General Insurance.
He said: “We already administer UK General’s claims in the travel, liability, GAP, creditor and property markets, and we are delighted to extend the relationship further by adding non-complex motor and commercial property claims to our claims administration portfolio.”
He added: “It marks the continueddevelopment of our strategy to offer a leading multi-product outsourced claims and administration model across a number of markets.”
