400% rise in pet insurance fraud highlights need for new approach

Mark-Colonnese,-Sales-and-Marketing-Director,-Aquarium-Software

Aquarium calls for full integration of the Insurance Fraud Register with pet insurers’ software

The UK pet insurance industry could help stem some £2 million worth of pay outs in fraudulent pet insurance claims each year, by fully integrating existing insurance intelligence into its operational software tools, according to Aquarium Software - the specialist pet insurance technologist. Pet insurance fraud is rising at 400 per cent a year, and this year’s Government Insurance Fraud Taskforce report recommends data sharing as crucial to tackling the issue.

Aquarium Software is making the case that pet insurance provider software should be fully integrated with fraud registers and other associated databases, rather than having these as stand-alone resources.

Mark Colonnese, sales and marketing director at Aquarium, says: “Pet insurance is vulnerable to fraud by its nature. Therefore, a strategic, thoughtful and advanced solution is needed to tackle the unprecedented rise in cases. Part of the solution is to fully integrate all the available data into the software that pet insurance providers use.”

The Government’s 2016 Insurance Fraud Taskforce final report states: ‘Data sharing is vital in the fight against fraud and there is plenty of room for improvement in the quality of anti-fraud data and how it is shared.’ Specific recommendations made by the report include improving the data available in fraud databases and data sharing schemes; and ensuring data is shared appropriately. Fraudulent pet insurance claims have continued to rise by 400 per cent over the last four years. Pet insurance fraud is significantly higher than all other types of insurance fraud, despite the establishment of a national Insurance Fraud Register in 2012.

Fraud is a growing area of crime in England and Wales the ONS Crime Survey which found in 2016 there are 3.8 million cases of fraud committed a year (Crime Survey for England and Wales).

“Twenty first century problems require twenty first century solutions,” says Colonnese. “There is no need to have different intelligence accessed through different platforms. We have the tools to aggregate intelligence seamlessly to help tackle pet insurance fraud that’s costing the industry and honest consumers.”

 

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