A rise in the number of personal injury claims submitted has hit into esure’s profits for the first half of the year, and as a result, the online insurance firm has decided to increase the cost of its car insurance premiums.
Esure’s trading profit for its car insurance business dropped to £3.3m between January and June this year, dropping a staggering 80.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2014.
The cost of paying out for claims rose to £208.6m, an increase of almost 13 per cent, a rise which has been blamed on an increase in motorists making claims for whiplash and other small personal injuries.
A rise in these claims is pressuring insurers into raising the costs of their car insurance premiums.
A new government scheme was introduced earlier this year to help crack down on the number of fraudulent personal injury claims made, which sees the government and insurers join forces to ensure that injuries are checked by doctors before an injury is diagnosed and a claim can be successful.
“The claims environment in the motor market continues to deteriorate and as a consequence we will seek to implement further rate increases in the second half of the year,” said esure’s CEO, Stuart Vann.
Esure owns Sheilas’ Wheels, among other brands, and in March completed the £95m purchase of the 50 per cent stake in GoCompare which it didn’t yet own.