Automated driving record and claims history disclosure should be introduced to prevent the denial of claims for people unaware they haven’t provided key information to insurers, the Financial Rights Legal Centre (FRLC) says.

Governments should work with the general insurance sector to enable pre-filling of the details at the time when motor policies are purchased, an FRLC report released today recommends.

“We are already able to enter our registration numbers and pre-fill our vehicle details when we obtain a quote for insurance - we should be able to do the same with our driving records and insurance claims histories,” Financial Rights CEO Karen Cox says.

“This is our own data held in databases by roads and traffic authorities and insurers - we should be able to use it to pre-fill our insurance disclosure to make sure we get the right insurance coverage.”

The report, Automating General Insurance Disclosure, examines 186 Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) decisions based on non-disclosure disputes and 190 Financial Rights cases from 2018 to last year.

Four insurers accounted for around 80% of the non-disclosure AFCA disputes last year, comprising Auto & General (26%), AAI (Suncorp Group) (22%), Hollard (17.9%) and Allianz (13.4%), the report says.

The report recommends that those firms examine their quoting, sales and claims assessment processes to lower the incidence of denials due to non-disclosure.

FRLC says regulatory change effective this month that replaces a “duty of disclosure” to a “duty to take reasonable care” won’t end the problems as insurers will continue to rely on people’s imperfect memory or haphazard record keeping to obtain information they require.

“It does not matter how clearly the question is asked, if people don’t know the right answer, they cannot provide it,” the report says. “Practically speaking, nothing has altered the fact that full disclosure may not occur and people may be, unbeknownst to them, driving on the roads uninsured.”

Financial Rights says pre-filling of information is available in the UK through the MyLicence scheme and an Australian version should be developed.

The report is the second in a Future of Insurance series, with the first examining implications from an expected extension of Consumer Data Right (CDR) reforms to the sector, following their introduction last July in banking.

The reforms aim to enable consumers to easily access their data and authorise its secure disclosure to accredited third parties.

The CDR could assist the disclosure process by requiring insurers to lift data collection standards and improve consistency to ensure information is accurate, today’s report says. It also calls for insurers to resource a program to improve the reliability of the consumer data they hold.

The report is available here.