Supporting fairer insurance premiums for female-owned businesses

For years the insurance industry has accepted that there are differences between men and women when it comes to driving – women are proven to be safer drivers and so their insurance premiums are lower.
But motoring isn’t the only area of insurance where differences between the sexes affect the level of risk they represent to an insurance company.

Claims figures averaged across the insurers that feature in the SimplyBusiness.co.uk business insurance comparison engine show that women not only make fewer claims on their business insurance than men, but that the value of those claims is considerably lower.

Further SimplyBusiness.co.uk research on the issue reveals that women-owned businesses are less risky, more financially sound and ultimately less likely to fail than their male-owned counterparts. The research also shows that attitudes to taking business risks differ considerably between the sexes.

So, with this evidence in hand we’re asking you to support us in our campaign to make the cost of business insurance premiums fairer for women in business.

Changing attitudes in the industry

Insurance is a very traditional industry and change can be a long time coming. However, the introduction of women’s rates for car insurance and the high level of growth on these products has shown that gender is a legitimate differentiator for setting premiums.
Women drivers benefit from cheaper car insurance premiums because they are calculated based on the risk profile of the driver. A report from the Ministry of Justice in the UK showed that men accounted for 82% of all speeding convictions in 2007 and 86% of all careless driving offences.

Dispelling the discrimination question

Some would argue that offering women lower insurance premiums is discriminative against men. However, car insurance companies are able to base their risk profiles on solid evidence that women are overall safer drivers. When a discrimination case was brought to the EU court, it was ruled that although discriminating purely on the bases of gender was illegal, insurance companies could legally base premiums on the risks posed from specific groups of society.

We have clear evidence that male-owned businesses cost insurers 60% more on average than women-owned businesses - is now the time for insurers to recognise that women are lower risk ‘drivers’ of business?
 

Key Statistics

• Male owned businesses cost 60% more to insure than female
• Half (50%) of male business owners have a risk confident attitude to business, compared to less than a third (30%) of women
• Over a third (34%) of male entrepreneurs have had a business go under, compared to less than a quarter (23%) of female entrepreneurs
• Men are more likely to simultaneously run a number of companies (1.5 firms on average) than women (1.3 firms)