Thank you to Mariangela Pira who, on Sky TG24 Business, is helping to shed light on the insurance protection gap and insurance protection against collective biometric risks. This comes at a time when, due to COVID-19, we are rethinking how we protect workers and their families.
It costs EUR 11 a month to soften the financial blow to the family of a worker with a critical illness or permanent disability. Yet according to the research conducted by Prometeia in collaboration with elipsLife, Italy’s insurance protection gap – in other words, the total uninsured amount for death by all causes – is calculated to be EUR 8,200 billion, with just 3% of Italian families protected from these risks.
Some points to consider:
1) The insurance protection offered by first pillar public systems against biometric risks (early death, disability) is low. The public system must guarantee a minimum level of protection based on a system of mutual solidarity. In Italy, it is the same as everywhere.
2) Italy differs greatly from other European countries in terms of the protection offered against biometric risks via supplementary second pillar systems (pension funds) and pure risk policies which are obligatory, or at any rate very widespread, in many European countries.
3) In other countries, the income gap for a family hit by serious misfortune is far less pronounced. Indeed, it is practically compulsory for pension funds to provide pure risk models, meaning that the family of a young worker is able to receive not just the contributions paid, but also the life insurance irrespective of the years of contributions.
4) On the other hand, the insurance gap in Italy remains significant. Young families with only a few years of contributions remain the most exposed. Just imagine the difficulties that a destitute widow or minors face. All children who are unable to study will also become victims of an educational inequality that could be mitigated, if only there were second pillar models to provide coverage in the event of death.
Coming soon: the second instalment of the research conducted by Prometeia in collaboration with elipsLife on the insurance protection gap with a direct comparison between Italy and some of the key realities in other European countries.