A complaint will be lodged today with the Director of Equality Investigations claiming discrimination on age grounds in the car insurance sector. This is the first of its kind to come before the equality investigations office.
The complaint will be made by Mr David Green, a 20-yearold shift-worker in IBM with an accident-free record. It is being supported by the Motor Insurance Justice Group.
Mr Green is paying £4,072.61 to the Quinn Direct insurance company for insurance on his family saloon car. This company specialises in younger drivers. According to Mr Michael Murphy, the organiser of the MIJG campaign, most insurers will not insure young drivers at all.
The Equal Status Act outlaws discrimination in the provision of services on nine grounds, including age. However, it allows discrimination if it is justified on actuarial or commercial grounds.
According to the Director of Equality Investigations, Ms Melanie Pine, there is no case law yet in this area, so the details of what justifies discrimination have not been spelt out.
Mr Murphy said that all independent studies examined by his group showed that young drivers were between twice and three times the risk, in insurance terms, of older drivers. But the rates they were usually quoted were many times greater than that, compared with the rates quoted for older drivers.
"The £4,072.61 David Green is paying is 8.2 times the average rate for that kind of car," he said. "The Equal Status Act allows discrimination using actuarial data, but we have never seen that data."
If discrimination is found, the Act allows for the payment of compensation as well as outlawing the discrimination.
Quinn Direct could not be contacted for comment yesterday.