UK insurers will still be able to consider age in assessing risk and calculating premiums when new age discrimination laws come into effect from October.

Home Secretary Theresa May says the incoming age discrimination laws will not apply to financial services, including insurance companies.

This is despite ongoing lobbying by various groups that assert insurers penalise the elderly with hefty premiums on products like car and travel insurance.

The UK Home Office has dismissed these claims as “anecdotal in nature”.

In April the UK insurance industry signed a voluntary deal to enable older people to obtain car and travel insurance more easily and to provide more information about the decisions made.

Under the agreement, brokers should automatically refer customers to an alternative provider if they are unable to offer cover due to age restrictions on their products.

There is mixed opinion around the assumption that older people are automatically higher risks, with recent research describing higher premiums as “not really evidence-based”.