British troops serving abroad have been hit by significant increases in home insurance premiums due to rules that penalise long absences, the Mirror has learned. Many major insurers impose clauses that require homeowners to take out specialist unoccupied home insurance if they spend more than 30 to 60 consecutive days away per year, often costing hundreds of pounds more in premiums.
Labour MP Alistair Strathern, whose constituency includes MoD Chicksands and RAF Henlow, said he has met with some of Britain's biggest insurers after hearing from serving troops who were “let down” by their policies. He noted that soldiers helping train Ukrainian forces against the Russian invasion were among those affected, facing extra costs or even policy cancellations with little notice.
Three major insurers—Aviva, Hastings Direct, and Admiral—have since changed their policies to provide special allowances for armed forces members. However, Mr Strathern is calling on the entire industry to do more to honour those who serve. He warned that some insurers’ refusals to make allowances risk breaching the Armed Forces Covenant, a formal promise to treat service personnel with fairness and respect.
Mr Strathern said: “The Armed Forces Covenant is a really important commitment… At its core, it’s based on the premise that signatories would ensure that armed forces members are not disadvantaged by their service. In an ideal world, you'd hope that these businesses who've signalled they want to do right by service personnel by signing up to the Covenant, actually lived up to it. Otherwise it is just warm words.”
The Royal British Legion has also urged insurers to develop a more joined-up approach to avoid disadvantaging those deployed overseas. Mr Strathern plans to continue raising the issue in Parliament when MPs return to the Commons.
