The Post Office has become the latest insurer to launch a home insurance policy just for the over 50s.
The new policy has immediately been given a 5* rating by financial information firm Defaqto, and includes a number of benefits tailored to older people.
These include:
- unlimited alternative accommodation for family if your home isn’t safe to live in;
- £10,000 personal assault cover;
- up to £1,500 cover for garden plants and up to £2,000 on contents kept out in the open (such as patio furniture);
- £300 cover for loss or damage to visitors’ effects in your home, including visitors who provide you with medical or palliative care;
- an extra 10% contents cover for one month before/after special events such as weddings, Christmas, births, christenings and milestone wedding anniversaries.
Optional add-ons like home assistance (covering the likes of plumbing emergencies, pest infestation and energy supply failures) and family legal protection will cost a little more.
What over-50s home insurance offers
A number of specialist insurers, including Age UK, RIAS, 50plus, Insure4Retirement and Saga, offer home insurance policies designed just for those aged 50 or above. As a result, the policy is slightly different to a mainstream home insurance policy.
Over 50s tend to make fewer, smaller claims and they’re more honest about how much they’ve lost. This low risk status allows insurers to offer them higher contents cover as they're more likely to have collected more possessions over their lifetime. The things covered by accidental damage is likely to be more extensive too. For example Insure4Retirement explicitly names damage caused by stair lifts in your home as something covered by accidental damage.
Older people are also more likely to live in a larger family home, so their buildings insurance will be greater under a specialist policy.
[SPOTLIGHT]Many policies include a 'new for old' clause when it comes to replacing lost or stolen items, while the cover offered when the home is unoccupied tends to be greater as older people have more free time to travel.
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Is an over-50 policy right for me?
Whether an over-50 home insurance policy is right for you really comes down to whether you feel you will make use of the features that set it apart from a traditional home insurance policy. For example, if you don't have a garden, having extra cover for plants and patio furniture is unnecessary. Similarly, if you aren't a hoarder and don't have lots of belongings then you won't really benefit from the extra contents cover that may be on offer.
It's also worth bearing in mind that over-50s insurance products do not have the best of reputations. Back in January, a study by consumer champions Which? found that many over-50s deals, from insurance to savings accounts, offer poor value compared to their open to all equivalents. For more, read Over-50s products a 'rip-off'.
Making sure you’re fully covered
The process of ensuring you have the right amount of cover is the same no matter what age you are.
Ensure you go through every room in your house to tally up your possessions, including the attic and the basement. And don’t forget about stuff in the garage or shed; you'd feel the sting if you had to replace your lawnmower, outdoor furniture and gardening tools without cover.
If you have valuable assets like antique furniture, jewellery, fine wines and fine art, it’s best to seek a specialist provider as storage and security are huge issues when insuring these.
Though it’s great to be fully covered, it’s also possible to over-insure. Double-check to see if there are any overlaps with your existing insurance policies as some won’t pay out if they know you have the same insurance elsewhere. One common example is having phone cover from your provider as well as on your home insurance. The insurers may then decide to collaborate to give you an adequate payout but this can really slow down the claims process.
Read our cut your home insurance costs guide for more on how to lower your premiums.
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