I have been renewing our car insurance and am struck, as always, by the disadvantage (discrimination?) faced by people who were born outside the UK. My partner was born to British parents in Australia. Every time we want to get car insurance I have to declare this, and the resulting price is £30-40 more than if she had been born in the UK. I could understand a price increase due to the increased risk of someone who has only recently moved to the UK, but my partner has been driving here for 20 years.
LE, Portsmouth
Even if she’d been on British roads for 50 years, it would be the same story and the price difference is significant. A comparethemarket.com survey found that drivers with a UK licence who were not born in the UK are charged average annual premiums of £837, compared to £595 paid by the average UK-born driver. Those with an international licence can expect to pay more than £1,500. Insurers call it “risk assessment”; to the rest of us it looks like discrimination.
