Legal advice: When can gender affect insurance?

Advice on how insurers can legally use gender as a risk factor for insurance applications has been released by the government, following a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Under the ECJ ruling, the use of gender as a risk factor by insurers must not lead to differences in premiums and benefits for men and women.

The law will come into effect in the UK from December 21st 2012, despite the UK government declaring that they do not support the measure.

According to officials the judgement is detrimental for consumers and does not ensure fair deals for men and women, as the ruling originally intended.

The new law will apply to contracts entered into after December 21st 2012 and does not affect existing agreements.

However, this may change following a consultation and further ECJ input.

Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the Treasury, commented:"While nobody should ever be treated unfairly because of their gender, financial services providers should be allowed to make sensible decisions based on sound analysis of risk."

Once the ruling comes into effect, men and women will be assessed following the same risk markers.

Published by Phil Hammond