Is your driving insurance invalid?

Research by RAC Insurance suggests hundreds of thousands of car users could be driving without valid insurance (Bluegame)

So how would you feel to be told that you’re effectively uninsured? It happens.

As the policyholder, it’s up to you to tell your insurer of any significant changes in your circumstances after you’ve bought the insurance.

It’s one of those bits of small print that most of us read briefly, if at all.

But we ignore it at our peril.

Research by RAC Insurance found that nearly a fifth of motorists (18%) wouldn’t bother telling their insurance firm if they picked up penalty points.

That suggests hundreds of thousands of car users could be driving without valid insurance.

If they were to be involved in an accident they could face further penalty points, an unlimited fine and be disqualified from driving.

The police could even seize and potentially destroy the uninsured vehicle.

RAC Insurance director, Mark Godfrey, said: “Our research points to one of two likely scenarios – either motorists are simply forgetting to inform the relevant authorities when they receive points, or they are intentionally not telling them in order to keep their insurance premium lower.

“This could have very serious, and indeed costly, implications should they be involved in an accident, and could cause no end of problems should they need to make an insurance claim themselves.”

Since 2014, a DVLA initiative called MyLicence has given insurers access to the last five years of a motorist’s driving history, including points, if a driver provides their driving licence number.

At present, the system is a voluntary one and not all insurers insist on a driving licence number being provided.

Disclosing medical conditions

It’s not just points on your licence that you need to tell insurers and the DVLA about.

Research from Direct Line Car Insurance suggests more than one million motorists over the age of 65 have failed to disclose serious medical conditions to the DVLA.

It reveals almost three in 10 (28%) of older motorists have conditions such as a visual impairment, diabetes, heart condition or epilepsy that must be disclosed to the DVLA.

Despite this, almost half have failed to do so.

Of the over 65s who haven’t disclosed their conditions, most (57%) say it’s because they don’t feel that their condition affects their driving.

Common conditions that should be reported to the DVLA include physical disability, heart conditions, stroke, diabetes controlled by insulin, visual impairment, head injury and epilepsy.