Disabled man takes on car insurance giants

Sunil Peck

A disabled motorist says that he will go to court to force insurance companies to change their policies on offering online quotes for adapted vehicles.

Thomas Atkins has just received an out-of-court settlement from Insure and Go which he sued after it twice refused to give him a quote for his adapted vehicle.

He has identified 67 other brokers and companies that he says are discriminating against disabled motorists because they do not offer quotes for vehicles adapted for disability reasons.

He has informed the Equality and Human Rights Commission about 17 of them, all of which have denied him a quote, and he is threatening to take them to court unless they change their policies.

Mr Atkins said: “I am doing this for the benefit of disabled motorists who deserve equality and have to adapt their cars out of necessity. These companies are discriminating against disabled people.”

A spokeswoman from the Post Office, one of the companies that Mr Atkins claimed was discriminating against disabled motorists, said that its online system could give instant quotes for modified vehicles but customers should also talk to a consultant to make sure that they had full cover.

She added that the process involved a short telephone call.

A spokeswoman for OutRight Insurance, another company that Mr Atkins claims has a discriminatory policy, said that it was not company policy to comment on individual cases; but she said that all customers with modified vehicles are referred to an assessment panel.

She added: “The customer is advised that they will receive a call on the day they submitted their details or the next working day if the details were submitted after 5pm or on the weekend.”

A spokesman from the AA, which Mr Atkins also claims discriminates against disabled motorists, said that the company did not discriminate against disabled motorists and that anyone requesting a quote for an adapted vehicle was required to speak to a member of staff on the telephone.

Mr Atkins said that four out of the 17 companies had been asked if they were prepared to enter into conciliation. Two had agreed to do so.

Douglas Campbell, chief executive of Mobilise, the disabled motorists’ charity, said that if Mr Atkins had been denied a quote because of his impairment rather than because of “underwriting issues”, this would be “totally unacceptable and  indicates a degree of laziness on their part”.

He added: “It's blatant discrimination in the same way that it would be if they said, ‘We're not going to give you a quote because you’re black or a woman.’”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said that it was investigating Mr Atkins’ cases but was unable to comment further.