The Insurance Guarantee Fund (UFG) prepared a report in which it presummarized the year 2016 on the motor liability insurance market. The report shows that over a third of the compensation paid for personal injury in Poland concerns traffic accidents which had taken place in the past.
Most of the money does not go directly to the injured victims, but to the relatives of victims who died in road accidents.
“Drivers irritated by the constantly increasing price of liability insurance policies should be aware of what benefits are covered by insurers with their current contributions” says Elizabeth Wanat-Połeć, the CEO of UFG. “An increasing share of these payments are compensation for pain and suffering of the families of victims who have died in accidents, who only now – after several years – apply for benefits” – she explains.
In 2016 nearly PLN 500 million in payments were related to compensation for accidents that occurred in the period from 1997 to August 2008 and they were not taken into account within the current calculation of premiums – according to preliminary data submitted so far by the insurance companies to the UFG communication policies database.
Last year, payments of benefits for personal injury accidents reached PLN 1 billion.
“Therefore arises the question of whether we can afford, as a society, to pay such very high damages to such an undefined group of people – for deaths suffered in the distant past” notes Sława Cwalińska-Weychert, vice president of UFG.
“Should the law extend so far back, especially when people that have to pay for it are only today owners of vehicles? Well, can we differentiate the victims?”
Shouldn’t the circle of closest people be determined also for road accidents, as is in the case of relatives of victims of crime? Should valuation of compensation depend only on the wealth of the payer? – wonders Sława Cwalińska-Weychert .
The Insurance Guarantee Fund explains that the increasing compensation payments for families of victims of accidents is the result of a series of changes in legislation and case law of the Supreme Court in 2007 and 2008. Those changes mainly enlarged the circle of persons who are entitled to compensation from motor liability insurance. They also extended the period covered by motor liability insurance – to twenty years. The Insurance Guarantee Fund stresses out that in these expenses, are paid today by drivers through the high prices of insurance policies for motor liability insurance.
In addition, the Insurance Guarantee Fund notes the successive enlargements of liability of insurers, which will result in a continuous rise in prices for liability insurance policies.
This includes the idea of the Ministry of Health to re-introduce the so-called ‘Religa tax’, and the work of the Senate on the payment of benefits beyond the sum of the guarantee for accidents that took place in the 90s. – And yet there is no such protection system that will be able to bear all conceivable costs. Especially since the only source of funding of benefits and compensation in motor liability insurance are insurance premiums, which will have to grow successively – remarked vice president Cwalińska-Weychert.
The study prepared by the Insurance Guarantee Fund also shows that the amount of payments of compensation from motor liability insurance continues to grow.
Insurance companies in 2016 paid benefits of 1.5 million claims. Thus, there was an increase by 10% compared to 2015.
Preliminary data show that the total amount of claims paid exceeded PLN 5.5 billion. These figures do not include amounts that are inextricably linked to the payment of damages such as costs of claim settlements. The Insurance Guarantee Fund says that at the same time in 2016 were more than 1.1 million new vehicles with OC policies. This means that on Polish roads, at the end of last year, were 22.936 million vehicles with OC policies, thus 5% more than in 2015.
