Fresh controversy surrounds the pay packages of top insurance CEOs, as families across the UK are hit by ever-increasing premiums.
Campaigning law firm Thompsons Solicitors investigated the remuneration of the CEOs of the top three insurers and found that their salaries, benefits, bonuses and dividends gave them earnings in 2015 ranging from £4.82 million to the top figure of £37.82 million, earned by Admiral CEO Henry Engelhardt. This compares to the average UK salary of £27,600, with the price of insurance rising 17 percent in the last year alone.
The figures come ahead of the government’s announcement of a package of reforms that will see insurance companies’ profits rise even further and accident victims denied justice, according to Tom Jones, Head of Policy at Thompsons Solicitors.
Jones said: “Families up and down the UK facing ever increasing motor insurance premiums will be rightly appalled at the money these CEO’s are getting.
“Huge profits and dividends may make shareholders happy but they are a slap in the face for those who are, as the Prime Minister said, ‘just managing’.
“The insurance industry has made spurious and unsubstantiated claims to bully the government into rolling over and agreeing changes in the small claims limit that will leave those injured on the roads and at work without access to justice.
“The audacity of those receiving eye-watering rewards packages to lobby for changes to the small claims limit that will only mean more profit for them and leave injured motorists and employees out in the cold is staggering.
“Theresa May talked of fairness on the steps of Downing Street and yet here we have her government working hand in glove to line the pockets of fat cat insurers that are already ripping off motorists and awarding their CEOs eye-watering financial packages.”