We are reminded constantly that car insurance costs can be exacerbated due to uninsured drivers. It is also true that all UK car insurance companies must pay into the Motor Insurance Fund.
This pool of money was created to help the public avoid injury or damage caused by hit-and-run drivers and uninsured drivers.
The fund was created more than 60 years ago after WW2 when licensing laws and regulations regarding car insurance were still being formulated.
In the years that followed World War II, the UK saw an exponential rise in car ownership. Women were taught to drive for the first-ever time to aid the war effort.
After the war, Britain’s roads began to get clogged. The return troops and foreign bases increased the number of unlicensed vehicles and drivers driving on UK roads with no car insurance.
The number of uninsured drivers in accidents rose steadily. Public outcry forced the government into action. In 1946, a Government “Quango” called the Motor Insurers Bureau was created (MIB) to oversee all aspects of public compensation for any damage.
The MID is to this day funded by a proportion of every policy sold, and to date has paid out over £2 billion in total. The MID have calculated that the cost to each of us when we purchase car insurance is an additional £15 to £30 per policy to cover uninsured drivers, which amounts to more than £200 million every year.
Recent statistics from the Bureau show that driving without insurance is still a problem. One in twenty vehicles on the roads is not covered by insurance.
The statistics show that drivers who don’t have car insurance are causing far more damage each year than those who do.
Even if you identify the uninsured driver and have filed a claim through MIB, it is sometimes difficult to get full compensation.
A satisfied claim is a claim that has been paid out after the claim has been fully analyzed and a judgment rendered.
In a case of a hit and run driver without car insurance who is unidentified, the MIB does not pay all legal costs, which can quickly run into thousands, but merely makes a contribution with a deduction to cover the balance of legal costs and expenses.
Thus the hidden costs and misery caused by the actions of those who choose to drive without car insurance is far greater than the official statistics of two hundred million pounds every year.
These figures were the basis for the creation of the Motor Insurance Database at the start of the 21st century. Every person who purchases a car insurance policy is added to the database daily. All police forces in the country have access to this information immediately. They can send a registration number to the MID through automatic number plate recognition systems.
This allows the system immediately to indicate to a field police officer cars being driven, and if the driver has valid car coverage.