Your task:
Your goal is to develop a behavioural change intervention to encourage an increase in the take up rate of home and contents insurance to improve coverage of insurance for natural disasters. Your solution needs to be innovative, creative, feasible, realistic and grounded in behavioural science.
Your idea will be evaluated on three dimensions- potential impact, feasibility of implementation, and the plausible use of behavioural insights.
The problem:
Areas prone to fires, cyclones and floods are facing escalating insurance costs, as the frequency and severity of extreme weather events increase. Premiums have risen sharply over the past decade as insurers recover costs of the increasing number of insurance claims and factor in future risks. In a recent report, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found that the average cost of home and contents insurance has increased dramatically, with northern Australia particularly affected.
Those not insured or underinsured will be financially devastated. Insurance premiums will rise, and as a result, more and more people will opt out of insurance, exacerbating the financial and social impacts of natural disasters.
You can find the report here:
https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Northern Australia Insurance Inquiry – Final Report – 30 November 2020.pdf
Other useful articles are here:
- https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/news-items/is-your-small-business-insured-for-storms-floods-bushfires-and-other natural-disasters/
- https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2021-releases/21-326mr-asic-encourages-home-insurers to-be-consumer-centric-in-handling-claims-this-summer/
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103209
Who are you targeting?
Home owners (home and contents insurance) and/or renters (contents insurance). It is possible to focus on a particular demographic group.
How can you assess effectiveness?
Are you able to test your intervention? What method(s) would be optimal? How would you collect data if you could? What would be your measure of success? Chances are if an intervention would change your behaviour, it would change other people’s too.
