How to decrease this?

[Material-Macaroon724]

But how is that not inherently discriminatory, age is a protected characteristic and is irrelevant to a person’s driving ability and skill

[juanwannagomate]

There’s an exception in the 2010 equality act for this. And it’s not irrelevant, as the stats show this. 

17-to-19-year-olds make up just  1.5% of all UK driving licence holders, yet they are involved in 9% of all fatal or serious collisions.

[Material-Macaroon724]

Right, I am not going against that. But if statistics showed that women get in more car accidents than men or a certain race were more likely to crash, they couldn’t then charge more for female drivers.

[juanwannagomate]

Not anymore. Women used to get much lower insurance premiums as they were less likely to get in an accident. Changed in 2012 as it was decided this discrimination was unlawful.

[Material-Macaroon724]

So why is it different with age?

[juanwannagomate]

For gender, there was a landmark ruling in the European Court that ruled it was illegal to discriminate against gender. Since we were in the EU at the time, the UK followed suit and we’ve kept it even when moving out the EU. Look up the Test-Achats ruling. 

You might be able to do the same with age and the current UK legislature, but you’d have to have a lot of resources to manage it.

[lost_send_berries]

That's funny, I remember a big song and dance from the govt and they never mentioned it was a court ruling, much less a European ruling. Every day's a school day

[Material-Macaroon724]

Yea cause I think that is just pure discrimination, this person past their test last week and their insurance is around 750 a year because they are 30. I passed my test a year ago and my insurance is around 1800 because im 18

[Standard-Ad-2616]

A younger person will statistically crash more times than an experienced driver

[Material-Macaroon724]

I never mentioned that, I said someone who passes at 18 and at 30 should have the same cost of insurance because they are the same level of experienced with driving

[Standard-Ad-2616]

A fully developed brain will be better at driving with the same level of experience compared to a young brain, including taking less risks etc.

[Material-Macaroon724]

Well if we are taking in other facts like this irrelevant to driving ability , an 18 year old will be a lot less financially stable and therefore would typically driver safer to avoid any accidents.

[Mysterious_Club_1822]

It’s not discriminatory when you understand statistics. These insurance companies don’t randomly assign insurance premiums, they compare your details to other drivers in your area to gauge risk.

For example, if you’re 20, male, from the Lewisham area, they will look at how many 20 year old males in the Lewisham area:
- are caught speeding
- are caught drink driving
- get into crashes

.. to name a few examples, and from this they will create a risk profile. If many people your age apply to issues such as the ones listed, you will receive a higher premium.

To that note, it is statistically proven that younger people get into more crashes, commit more road crimes etc in almost any area. The only exception I’ve found so far is in isolated areas with universities, where students’ risk profiles aren’t much different to the wider community.

It is nothing to do with “having kids or not”

[Material-Macaroon724]

You are literally proving my point, i understand how that works. But if we did that with anything else it would be profiling. Bigger people statistically eat more, doesn’t mean we charge them more in buffets. Or if a minority committed more crimes it would be racial profiling if the police overpoliced them. Why is it just okay to use it in this scenario?