A new report released today by the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety calls for general insurers to disrupt domestic violence in Australia by redesigning products to prevent financial abuse.
The second Designed to DisruptTM report authored by Catherine Fitzpatrick makes 19 recommendations and calls for:
- All general insurers to close loopholes that enable perpetrators to cancel insurance policies without the knowledge or consent of victim-survivors.
- The general insurance industry to include a ‘conduct of others’ clause as a standard, enabling victim-survivors to make a claim when perpetrators deliberately damage property.
- The government to modernise the General Insurance Act so that products can be redesigned with features that protect against financial abuse.
“General insurance is designed to provide financial protection from unexpected events,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“But too often victim-survivors of domestic and financial abuse find they don’t have the coverage they thought – either through deliberate tactics of perpetrators or due to common insurance rules and exclusions which penalise them.”
CWES CEO Rebecca Glenn said: “We are seeing abusers use a range of tactics to manipulate insurance products to cause harm, including vehicle, home and contents, and personal insurance products.
“These actions may leave victim-survivors, usually women, in very difficult financial circumstances, with damaged assets and no recourse through insurance.
“But there are simple steps insurers can take to assist victim-survivors of financial abuse and to prevent it from occurring in the first place.”
You can read the full media release here.