SIS Insurance Ex-Offenders Scheme
Mission
“To open up the world of insurance to ALL people with ANY criminal conviction”
The Situation
Is one that people don’t like to talk about, and when they do, it is often without sympathy or understanding.
Over 8,500,000 people have this problem.
It is serious, growing and it won’t go away.
At a number equal to one quarter of the UK’s working population, these 8.5 million citizens; men, women, parents, grandparents, children, employees and employers, constitute a significant part of UK life.
You probably know someone with this problem, but you may not know they have it.
Who are they?
Ex-Offenders - people with an unspent criminal conviction.
The Problem
These people have served their sentences, paid their fine and their debt to society, but despite this they are still living in limbo. We believe that most of them prefer not to re offend, but society doesn’t make it easy for them.
Under the practices of the mainstream insurers, ex-offenders with unspent convictions, and those that live with them, are essentially barred from securing even basic insurance. This can have serious emotional, social and economic consequences for the individual, their family and society as a whole. It discourages ex-offenders from declaring their convictions, leading an honest/legal life, and therefore increases the risk of possibility of re-offending.
Worse - If ex-offenders can’t get insurance by telling the truth, they can’t even drive a car – and finding a job, getting a mortgage or even travel insurance is closed to them.
So let’s have a look at just how long the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act states this information must be disclosed:
| Sentence |
Rehabilitation Period |
| Prison or YOI: 30 months+ |
Life |
| Prison or YOI: 6-30 months |
10 years |
| Prison or YOI: Less than 6 months |
7 years |
| Community Service/Probation |
5 years |
| Absolute Discharge |
6 months |
The Consequences
These people are our fellow citizens and fellow human beings. They are not all monsters (admittedly some are, but they have no intentions of mending their ways or obtaining insurance).
The ones trying to reform are damned if they disclose and damned if they don’t. All insurers consider unspent convictions as material facts, and mainstream insurers will refuse to offer or cancel cover for people with unspent convictions or a policyholder living in the same home.
Aggregators make it easy for non disclosure. In a recent investigation five leading aggregators were unable to offer valid insurance to the customer with a criminal conviction though several still generated quotes. To make it worse, the blanket assumptions some of these sites make may make it easy to accept the default answer of “none”. Surely you should not have to lie to buy?
The solution
Our solution is to open up the world of insurance to as many of this group as we can. To help those who are willing to buy insurance truthfully and with utmost good faith.
We started dealing with enquiries from clients with criminal convictions in 2005. Now we are considered expert. Our expansion has been achieved by working in partnership with charities and organisations such as the CIB, Princes Trust, Unlock, SERCO and many others including the Probationary Service and, more recently, Insidetime.
We invested heavily into staff training and technology - offering clients the facility to request on-line quotations. You wouldn’t believe it but most ex offenders are ashamed of their behaviour and often embarrassed to disclose it, even over the phone. Tact is an essential quality we learned early.
The general view is that those who have been able to obtain insurance with us understand the need to maintain their policies, and therefore only claim when they have to and tend not to inflate their losses or make minor claims.
All the Insurance Brokers we know treat their customers fairly. We however believe we do more than most and have a higher standard.
Why? Because of who we deal with.
We deal with clients who are already having difficulty obtaining insurance, and in some cases have little trust in Insurers and brokers. Insidetime (the UK’s largest publication for prisoners and their families) initially refused to deal with SIS because they doubt the integrity of all insurers. We demonstrated that we had the knowledge and understanding, integrity, facilities and transparency to help their readers obtain cover without premium loading through our growing panel of insurers.
We remain their only insurer/broker allowed to be featured.
Training
David Child as leader and mentor believes knowledge sharing critical to his business success. He is a naturally supportive manager who knows that delegation enhances the performance of his team. The team works together, sharing information, getting input and checking out their thinking. David spends as much time as possible with each member to support individual learning and development. Working closely together also acts as quality control ensuring the best possible product for our customers.
Our documentation is crystal clear. This ensures adequate cover at point of sale and encourages contact should there be any doubts - so we can go through the details line by line where necessary. A questionnaire is sent out requesting feedback on the transaction whilst also cross selling for any other business. This is a useful TCF tool whilst also helping to generate further business.
In January 2009 we employed the services of Create Solutions for all compliance issues to ensure our reputation for high standards is maintained.
Our unique selling points
• Our insurance for ex-offenders scheme allows us to offer cover for any criminal conviction no matter what the offence.
• We have always been able to deliver this promise to our referral partners.
• Our insurance for ex-offenders scheme is based on a panel of leading insurance companies and is a mixture of bespoke and delegated arrangements.
• Cascading of risk transfer will be possible.
• We are regarded by many organisations inside and outside of the insurance industry as expert in this area of insurance and have consolidated our position as market leaders.
• Our insurance for ex-offenders scheme has been rolled out on a sub-broking basis to over 1200 brokers nationwide allowing them access to our facilities.