Public Attitudes Towards Insurance Fraud
Detica has released results from a MORI poll exploring public attitudes towards insurance fraud. A key finding of the research is that while most people think that a proportion of a typical insurance premium does go towards paying for insurance fraud, most overestimate the amount. More than half (54%) believe that fraud adds more than 10% to premiums, including 40% of people who believe this figure to be over 20%. In fact, the true figure is just 3.75% (source: Association of British Insurers).
Many can identify reasons that they think others would use to justify committing insurance fraud, such as poverty and debt (9%) or looking for payback on policies which they have never claimed on (14%). This could suggest that insurance fraud is seen as acceptable by some. However, around half (53%) believe that organised crime has at least "a fair amount" of involvement in funding or benefiting from insurance fraud -- and the majority (71%) think that people might be more inclined to report incidents of insurance fraud if they believed a strong link to organised crime existed.
Topline Results
- All fieldwork was undertaken between 14-16 October 2005.
- MORI interviewed a nationally representative sample of British adults aged 16+.
- Base is 1,003 unless otherwise stated.
- All figures are presented as percentages. An asterisk represents a figure smaller than 0.5%, but greater than 0.
- Where percentages do not sum to 100, this may be due to computer rounding, multiple responses or the exclusion of 'don't know' categories.
- Data have been weighted to match the known population profile.
Introduction
We are now going to ask you some questions about different types of fraud, and public attitudes towards it. By fraud, we mean using deception for personal financial gain.
Q1 Which one or two of the following types of fraud do you think are the most widespread in Britain today?
| % | |
|---|---|
| Benefit fraud, e.g. claiming for a benefit such as income support to which one is not entitled | 57 |
| Credit card fraud, e.g. using other people's credit card details to make purchases | 53 |
| Sale of pirated or counterfeit goods | 27 |
| Identity fraud, e.g. using someone's identity for a purpose the person is not aware of | 18 |
| Tax fraud, e.g. evading taxes such as by under declaring income | 15 |
| Insurance fraud, e.g. overstating the value of items in an insurance claim | 11 |
| Money laundering, i.e. reinvesting illegally-gotten money so that it appears to be legal | 7 |
| Don't know | 3 |
Q2 Thinking again about the types of fraud I have just mentioned, please could you tell me which one do you personally find the most unacceptable?
| % | |
|---|---|
| Benefit fraud | 40 |
| Identity fraud | 26 |
| Credit card fraud | 16 |
| Money laundering | 6 |
| Tax fraud | 5 |
| Insurance fraud | 2 |
| Sale of pirated or counterfeit goods | 1 |
| Don't know | 5 |
Q3 If someone was suspected of being involved in a fraudulent activity, how likely do you think people would be to report it? Firstly for --
| Very unlikely | Fairly unlikely | Neither /nor | Fairly likely | Very likely | Don't know | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| Credit card fraud | 5 | 10 | 3 | 26 | 52 | 4 |
| Insurance fraud | 16 | 33 | 7 | 19 | 19 | 5 |
| Tax fraud | 20 | 32 | 7 | 20 | 16 | 5 |
| Benefits fraud | 10 | 24 | 6 | 31 | 26 | 4 |
| Identity fraud | 9 | 14 | 3 | 23 | 47 | 5 |
| Sale of pirated or counterfeit goods | 34 | 31 | 5 | 16 | 10 | 4 |
Q4 In general, how much involvement do you think organised crime has in funding or benefiting from the following types of fraud?
| A great deal | A fair amount | Just a little | None at all | Don't know | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | % | |
| Credit card fraud | 52 | 32 | 7 | 2 | 8 |
| Insurance fraud | 19 | 34 | 29 | 8 | 11 |
| Tax fraud | 27 | 34 | 23 | 6 | 10 |
| Benefits fraud | 25 | 27 | 27 | 13 | 9 |
| Identity fraud | 47 | 31 | 11 | 2 | 8 |
| Sale of pirated or counterfeit goods | 45 | 32 | 13 | 2 | 8 |
Q5 Insurance fraud is when people claim for additional items they don't actually own or haven't lost, or overstate the value of items claimed for. What do you think are the main reasons someone might use to justify committing insurance fraud?
| % | |
|---|---|
| Greed/Personal/Financial gain | 18 |
| They've never made a claim on their policy over the years, and are looking for some payback | 14 |
| Easy to get away with it | 11 |
| Insurance premiums are too high | 10 |
| Poverty/They need the money/They are in debt | 9 |
| Insurers have loads of money, they won't miss a bit extra | 8 |
| Insurers rarely pay out in full anyway | 5 |
| It's a victimless crime/No one actually loses or gets hurt | 4 |
| Want to replace goods with better ones | 4 |
| Many people are doing it, so why shouldn't they | 3 |
| There is no justification/Dishonest people | 3 |
| It is necessary to build an extra amount into the claim for time wasted and the hassle caused | 1 |
| To cover the excess | 1 |
| Only a small amount of money involved | * |
| Other (specify) | 7 |
| Don't know | 22 |
Q6 Please tell me how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements about insurance fraud.
| Strongly disagree | Tend to disagree | Neither /nor | Tend to agree | Strongly agree | Don't know | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| People might be more inclined to report incidents of insurance fraud if they thought there was a strong link between insurance fraud and the funding of organised crime | 6 | 13 | 6 | 34 | 37 | 4 |
| People might be more inclined to report incidents of insurance fraud if they thought it would help lower the cost of their insurance | 6 | 10 | 4 | 32 | 47 | 2 |
Q7 Approximately what percentage, if any, of a typical insurance premium do you think goes towards paying for insurance fraud?
| % | |
|---|---|
| Up to 2% | 2 |
| 3%-4% | 1 |
| 5%-10% | 17 |
| 11%-20% | 14 |
| More than 20% | 40 |
| Don't know | 26 |
