Insurance brokers have to fight harder to get claims paid during the economic downturn due to the stricter policy interpretations and anti fraud-systems by insurers, according to new research published today.
In the research from the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) which garnered 132 broker responses between 21-30 July, 67% of broker respondents said that they had to get tough with insurers on behalf of customers to get claims paid in the current economic climate and 93% regularly negotiate up to a 20% uplift on claims settlements.
The situation has worsened since last year with almost a 10% increase in brokers who said they had to fight harder for customer’s payouts.
BIBA says it plans to use the research in the media and with political stakeholders to demonstrate the benefits of using a broker and is encouraging brokers to use the statistics themselves to help promote the services that they provide.
Eric Galbraith, BIBA chief executive, said: “This is strong evidence to demonstrate the value of the broker and we plan to use this in every way that we can to promote brokers to wider world.