21/11/2017

The raid on the responsible must end here

Ahead of Wednesday's Budget the Association of British Insurers (ABI) is warning that hard-pressed families and businesses cannot take any more increases in Insurance Premium Tax (IPT), which has already doubled in the past two years from six per cent to 12%.

There's speculation that the Chancellor may be considering another rise, despite independent experts the Social Market Foundation saying that costs per-household are already set to rise above £200 in 2018. IPT applies to the vast majority of insurance policies sold, whether for motor, property, health (including cash plans) or pet cover – for businesses and individuals.

Here are the impacts of the repeated rises since summer 2015 on some individual products:

Other evidence of the problems being caused by soaring IPT:

• Last week, the Financial Inclusion Commission warned 16 million people don't have contents insurance, with cost one of the factors

• The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says 200,000 people have moved away from health insurance to the NHS in the past three years because of tax increases.

• The Social Market Foundation has found IPT is a regressive form of taxation because it hits those on lower incomes harder. It is also a stealth tax with almost 50% of survey respondents unaware of it.

Huw Evans, director general of the Association of British Insurers, said, 'People who buy insurance are doing the responsible thing – taking extra care of their health, their belongings and their families, and abiding by the law. To penalise families and businesses again and again with repeated tax rises is horribly unfair. The recent increases have impacted hardest on the poorest and it's time for Government to commit to no further increases this Parliament.'

The ABI has been campaigning against any further IPT increases on social media under the hashtag #IPTsUNFAIR after releasing a video demonstrating how wrong it is to penalise people for doing the right thing.