Hearing aid loss or damage tops list of facemask-related UK home insurance claims
An insurance company’s analysis of claims over the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 offers a likely but nonetheless intriguing chronicle of behavioural change through rises in ill-starred scenarios involving hot tubs, garden fires, and exercise equipment.
While iron burns were down – thanks to the fall in workers rushing to press their office clothes – The Belfast Telegraph reports that London-based multinational insurance group Aviva handled more than 1,000 insurance claims related to hearing aids or earrings being lost or damaged when people adjusted their face masks. Those involving hearing aids accounted for 70% of such claims. Glasses were also lost or broken when people used their masks.
The hearing aid claims had an average value of £1,400.
Kelly Whittington, property claims director for Aviva, said: “We certainly saw a few fluctuations throughout the Covid pandemic. Some of these changes seem to have been related to a particular moment in time, but there are wider behavioural trends, such as hybrid working, which are likely to impact our claims experience in the longer term.”
Source: Belfast Telegraph