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Insurance Policy
Holiday insurance has long been an issue for disabled travellers – what can you do to minimise the cost?
WORDS: MARK DAVIDSON
Whenever travelling – be it within the UK or abroad – non-disabled people usually have just a few decisions to make when organising their travel insurance; essentially, the length of cover (single trip or for a set period such as one year), the kind of policy (covering Europe or the whole world) and finding the best deal – increasingly by using one of the main price comparison websites.
However, things can get more complex if you have a pre-existing medical condition or a physical or sensory impairment. This is despite the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) making it’s illegal for you receive less favourable goods and services if the discrimination is based on your disability. And that includes when you’re arranging insurance.
Yet it’s not inherently against the word of the law for you to potentially end up paying more than a non-disabled person looking for effectively the same cover. Why? It comes down to one word in the legislation: ‘reasonable’. Given that it’s an industry based on the calculation of risk, the DDA actually allows the insurance industry to apply special conditions or premiums to disabled people for particular set of circumstances – just as long as they can show that they are fair and justifiable – that they’re ‘reasonable’.
BEING CHARGED MORE
In other words, while simple blanket bans are out, insurance companies can take underlying health issues and physical or sensory impairments into account when calculating the cover they’ll offer and the premiums they’ll demand. Of course, if you feel you’ve been unfairly treated, then you can make a formal complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman, either direct or through your local Citizens Advice Bureau. Alternatively, you can contact the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
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