Wednesday 4th June 2008
Older travellers are not being catered for by many travel insurance providers, according to new research from Help the Aged.
The charitys financial services arm, Intune, has published a study which looked into the availability of travel insurance for the older generation.
Almost all (97 per cent) of the travel insurance policies examined by the organisation imposed age limitations.
Stuart Castledine, managing director of Intune, suggests that a driving force behind such limitations being applied could be the greater number of claims made by older travellers.
He explains that, compared with the under-35s, those over 65 are three times as likely to claim on their travel insurance.
The figure rises to eight times for those over 85 years old, he adds.
However, Mr Castledine notes that this accompanies a trend in which many Britons are choosing to vacation later in life.
"While the older generation flock to the sun, or visit relatives abroad, insurance is getting harder to find," he comments.
"This comes at a time when many people are electing to work until 70, leaving it even later in life for them to make the most of their retirement."
In all, one in four of the policies examined cater for under-65s only, while nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) are unavailable to the over-75s.
Help the Ageds own travel insurance, offered through Intune, is free of age restrictions.
The organisation adds that its oldest customer so far this year is 101 years of age.
Recent research conducted by Help the Aged found that eight out of ten people do not think the government is working hard enough to secure the approval of elderly voters at the next election.
Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) would prefer age discrimination to be illegal in all cases, the study revealed.
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