The unemployed are being hampered by higher car insurance premiums close to double those working.
Students are also paying more than those out of work, according to a motor snapshot of policies compiled by Wales-based Comparethemarket.com .
The trends discovered in the survey that the average price of a policy for someone working is £693, for an unemployed person it’s £1,162 and those in education pay £1,192.
There is still a gap between men and women as well, despite the EU rule outlawing discrimination on gender grounds, but that can be explained said Dan Hutson, Head of Motor Insurance at Comparethemarket.com.
“With men paying £789 on average and women paying an average of £619, the gap currently stands at around £170 – a 27% difference,” he said.
“Curiously, the problem has been getting steadily worse since the EU Gender Directive was introduced. Our research found that in January 2013, the month after the implementation of the rules, the gap stood at almost 20%.
“This is likely due to a variety of factors, including the fact that men statistically have higher accident rates and men are more likely to drive higher performance and/or more expensive vehicles, which are considered higher risk.
“So, while the directive ensures that you couldn’t be discriminated against based on gender, the risk profiles used by insurers has meant the end premiums do differ considerably.”