Immigration - Migrants being missed by brokers

Brokers are not taking advantage of the opportunity that migrant workers bring, according to industry sources.

Though many of the migrants entering the UK from the ascension states of east Europe have a working knowledge of English, complicated policy wordings and warranties can leave workers confused.

Given PB's sister publication Post's coverage of 'ghost brokers' (Post, 13 March, 2008), which revealed fraudsters posing as east European-based brokers to exploit migrants, perhaps established British brokers should provide genuine services for this growing segment of the population.

Steve Foulsham, technical services manager at the British Insurance Brokers' Association, said that, while there were enough good-quality products for migrants, there had been no pressure on the broking side to offer extra services such as policy document translation. He continued: "The difficulty is that something could get lost in translation."

Phil Morgan, director at loss assessors Morgan Clark, said that policy warranties and conditions could be glossed over in an attempt to lower the claim: "I worked with an Asian restaurateur who took out an insurance policy, had someone fill in the form for him and then signed it without reading it properly. When a £180,000 fire claim was entered, the insurer rejected it on the grounds that part of the restaurant had a flat roof."

Morgan said that he believed brokers have an important part to play in providing immigrants with advice.

Market sources agreed that most of the migrant populations, particularly those involved in skilled labour, had a good grasp of English but may become confused when it comes to specific words or terminologies.

According to Graeme Durlacher, small business development manager at Allianz Commercial, the responsibility for translating documents lies with the broker and not the insurer. Though Allianz could be encouraged to translate if a broker built up a large enough book of policies, Durlacher admits the costs would be too high to offer them on an ad-hoc basis.

One Spalding-based broker, which did not wish to be named, said that they had attempted to gain business from the large Polish community arriving in the town by placing Polish signs in the window. While the marketing sparked an initial interest, selling personal lines policies proved to be a problem because the majority of applicants lived in rented accommodation. Tradesmen policies were not required either because most of the labourers worked for agencies that provided insurance already. The broker added: "Most are looking to be here only for a short time anyway, so they're not really good-quality business."

The idea that the recent wave of migrants is not looking to settle in the UK for a long time finds support in several studies. A report commissioned by the BBC's Newsnight on Polish migrants in the UK between 2003-4 showed that the vast majority of workers were under 34 years old and were planning to stay in the UK only for about five years.

If traditional brokers do not provide specialised services for local migrants then history may repeat the events of the 1980s, where a number of Asian brokers set up brokerages to cater specifically for the local ethnic communities.