Around 21% of England’s adult population regularly drinks at levels which increases their risk of ill health, but did you know that this can affect your ability to take out insurance?
Why Do Underwriters Ask About Alcohol?
When taking out insurance, applicants will go through a risk assessment process to help determine their eligibility to take out a policy, and the cost of their premium if they are accepted. This process is referred to as underwriting.
Many conditions can be worsened by a high alcohol intake, meaning that underwriters need to know how much alcohol an applicant drinks; they need to account for its possible effects on their life expectancy, level of health, or level of disability.
Insurance is always based on risk as the more risky you are seen to be, the more likely the insurer is to have to pay out. If anything indicates an increase in risk to your health, it will be factored into your ability to take out insurance. This includes:
- Whether you’re a smoker
- Your alcohol consumption
- Your weight
- Any mental health conditions
- Certain medical conditions
Research conducted by the UK government shows that alcohol misuse is actually the biggest killer of working age adults in England, meaning it’s overtaken 10 of the most dangerous forms of cancer. Given this, it is no surprise that underwriters consider alcohol misuse a significant risk factor in insurance applications.
Alcohol Screening Tests
When assessing applicants’ alcohol consumption, Zurich asks:
- How often you have an alcoholic drink
- How many drinks you consumer on a typical day when you’re drinking
- How frequently you have more than 8 units (if you’re a male) or 6 units (if you’re a female)
- Whether you’ve been informed that you have liver damage
- Whether drink driving has caused you to be banned from driving
- Whether you have attended an alcohol support group
Most insurance companies will follow a similar pattern of questions, to determine the risk level of an applicant’s alcohol intake.
The exact level of alcohol consumption that causes your application to be declined differs from insurer to insurer.
Zurich states:
“our ratings typically start when the total number of units is more than 30 per week […] Once someone has a total unit equivalent of more than 50 per week (the equivalent of three or four drinks per day) chances are they are doing quite a lot of damage to their health and we would decline to offer terms”
Anorak states:
“If you drink 30-40 standard drinks per week, your application will need to go through extra underwriting and you’ll probably need to provide medical information from your GP, but you might still be able to take out cover. If you currently drink 40+ standard drinks per week, it’s likely your application will be declined”
These quotes offer insight to the general kind of level of alcohol intake which starts to present issues when taking out insurance.
Insurance as a Recovered Alcoholic
Aviva states:
“If there is a history of alcohol dependence we may offer terms, but only after a period of complete abstinence.”
This is typical among most insurance companies.
It’s much easier to take out life insurance if you are no longer misusing alcohol but a period of sobriety is usually required by insurers before they are willing to offer you a policy. Reassured puts this range at 1-5 years, depending on who the insurer is.