41% of parents 'knowingly front car insurance policies'

New research shows that more than four in ten parents front their child's car insurance in order to save money.

New research released today (June 7th) shows that 41 per cent of parents in the UK are intentionally fronting their children's car insurance policies, despite knowing it to be illegal.

Fronting occurs when parents seek to save money on their child's annual motor insurance costs on their motor by adding themselves to the policy as the vehicle's main driver, when in fact this is not true.

As older drivers are usually seen as less high-risk than younger road-users, this often lowers the cost of single insurance by a significant amount.

However, despite the fact that fronting is legally classified as fraud, the Co-operative has found that over four in ten parents knowingly run the risk of doing this.

Meanwhile, 61 per cent said that they would front their child's insurance policy in the future and one-third know, on average, two other people who have also fronted.

Tim Franklin, chief operating officer at Co-operative Financial Services, said: "The view that motor insurance fronting is harmless and doesn't hurt anyone could not be further from the truth."

Meanwhile, a recent study by the Motor Insurance Bureau found that some 70 per cent of drivers were unaware of what fronting is.

By Mark Hornby