- Life insurance cover enquiries plummeted by 50 per cent last month
- Fall off blamed on the World Cup, heatwave… and rising bills

Levels of enquiries to the Moneynet life insurance cover service plummeted by nearly 50 per cent in June and July of this year, down from nearly 8,000 during May to a little over 4,000 enquiries in each of June and July.

Enquiry levels recorded on Moneynet’s online financial data comparison service are a broadly accurate measure of the levels of life cover broker sales. The Moneynet data also reflects worrying anecdotal evidence within the life industry that consumers are turning their backs on the product.

Sales of term assurance, which pays out on death, are normally steady throughout the year, typically with only modest volumes of seasonal fluctuation: the popularity reflects the low cost of this core insurance for homeowners with families.

“This is not so much a tail off as a catastrophic slump, and you have to wonder how people are going to cover key outgoings such as the mortgage payment in the event of the worst happening,” said Moneynet chief executive Richard Brown.

Moneynet attributes the slump to a number of factors, including the World Cup – which put the brakes on sales in other areas of the economy – the heatwave and rising council tax and energy bills.

But Richard Brown also warned that consumers are getting dangerously stretched, as mortgages account for ever higher percentages of the pay packet, and credit card and personal loan debt mounts.

“It will not take much to tip the balance in an already over-stretched economy,” he said.

“If the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee decides to hike the base rate by 0.25 per cent to head rising inflation off at the pass, then we could be looking at some very grim scenarios as consumers are obliged to tighten their belts even further.

“Life cover is as cheap as chips,** and it is perhaps a false economy to abandon it - the upshot is that homeowners with young children could leave themselves very vulnerable by ignoring this basic cover.

** Among the cheapest term assurance on the market is Standard Life’s basic cover. For a couple aged 30, both non smokers, the level term assurance over 25 years premium starts at £10.21 per month. A 40 year old couple would enjoy equivalent cover for £21.56 per month.

Consumer enquiries:
info @ moneynet.co.uk
Tel: 0208 460 2833
Moneynet

Press enquiries:
Richard Brown
Moneynet Chief Executive
Tel: 020 8313 9030

Cathy Tully
David Andrews Media Ltd Account Manager
Tel: 01273 774109 / 07747 196854                                            
cathy @ davidandrewsmedia.co.uk

David Andrews
David Andrews Media Ltd Director
Tel: 01273 774109 / 07941 255855
david @ davidandrewsmedia.co.uk