Following a review of the Personal Accident cover offered to women in the Armed forces, Forces Financial and Jubilee Managing Agency have included women’s cancer cover with their personal accident insurance.
The move is the first in the specialist broker’s efforts to better reflect the role of women in the Armed Forces, and their relatively lower claims experience compared with men.
Fair treatment
There are almost 18,000 women in the Armed Forces, around 9.1% of the total number. And since the early 1990s there has been a dramatic change in the range of duties women are able to undertake, serving on surface ships, as aircrew for the first time and in a greater range of posts in the army.
But while women increasingly play a more important role in the Armed Forces, insurance of personnel has not historically been designed with gender in mind.
The pricing of products like motor and life insurance already account for gender, but other policies do not reflect the differing risks and requirements of men and women in the same way, said Al Voice, managing director at Forces Financial.
Women make better drivers
Starting with an analysis of personal accident claims, Forces Financial found an imbalance between the claims made by male and female policyholders. “The reality is that women make fewer claims than men in the Armed Forces. They are not in the front line and they tend to experience fewer road traffic accidents,” he said.
Because its personal accident cover is a fixed premium product, Forces Financial were not able to just adjust the premiums to reflect the lower risk presented by women. So instead it decided to address the imbalance of claims by offering the additional benefit of cancer cover.
Appropriate benefit
There are now two million cancer survivors in the United Kingdom, a quarter of which were diagnosed with breast cancer making them the biggest single survivor group, noted Voice.
Female cancers, such as breast or ovarian cancer, can affect women at any age, he said. But recovery rates have improved significantly in recent years, and the extended insurance cover offered by Forces Financial will help them in that recovery, he added.
The addition of female cancer cover reflects the differing needs and risks faced by the different sexes in the Armed Forces, said Simon Parkinson, an accident and health underwriter at Jubilee. “The enhanced benefits now available are an example of the innovative kind of scheme Jubilee is delivering to the affinity sector,” he added.
Forces Financial is now looking at the other products it offers to see if there are additional benefits it can offer all policyholders to better reflect claims, said Voice.
