UPDATED STATISTICS
Why we must put insurers’ data to work against crime
The recent publication of the 2017-2018 crime statistics will have triggered insurers to recalibrate the costs of the various — and growing — risks they face, with an inevitable effect on the "grudge purchase", which perhaps hurts consumers more in SA than elsewhere in the world. Taxpayers fork out for what the state ought to be delivering: on health, private security and boreholes. The reasons why people pay for insurance are as complex as the country: a history of oppressive governance; government inefficiencies; and corruption. According to a 2017 survey, the short-term insurance industry reported gross written premiums of R92.1bn in 2016. This was 4.2% higher than the R88.4bn written in 2015, and much higher than SA’s GDP growth of 0.3% in 2016. Successful insurance companies profit from the state’s inefficiencies but, other than a reactive safety net taxpayers have already begrudgingly paid for, what do they offer society in return? A few companies have made real efforts to rec...
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