A new ‘school closures insurance’ has been launched to ‘protect’ parents against financial loss when their kids are unexpectedly off school. Another barmy idea to add to the list of pointless insurance premiums?
If you’ve got school-aged children, chances are that you lost out financially due to the bad weather this winter. Taking unexpected time off work or arranging last-minute childcare can throw your finances off track – cue school closures insurance.
Yes, you heard me right. The next step in insurance products seems to be getting cover in case your child’s school unexpectedly closes. A new insurance policy from Towergate Insurance claims to be ‘the first of its type’ and costs £30 a year per child, paying out £100 a day when their school is closed due to snow, flooding or boiler failure.
As with most insurance, there are some catches. First, the school must be closed for more than a day before you can claim. Second, the annual payout is capped at £500, so there’s little profit to be made here.
Insurance companies cashing in
Catches aside, is this kind of product really necessary? To me it reeks of insurance companies cashing in on the fear that next winter might bring a snow chaos re-run. Yes, it’s inconvenient and could cost us a little money, but where will insurance stop if we insure against every possible inconvenience?
This isn’t the first time we’ve come across a pointless insurance product (and I doubt it’ll be the last). Our list of financial products to ditch today shows that insurance is often a waste of money. Three out of our top ten were insurance products – mobile phone insurance, ID fraud cover and PPI insurance. We’ll reserve a slot for school closures insurance next year!
Insuring against every possible problem isn’t a way to save money in the long-term. Better to put a little aside each month in case of a rainy day (or even a snowy one) than fork out endless annual amounts on barmy premiums like this.