Good year for State Ins.

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 20

Good year for State Ins.

PA Wellington The State Insurance Office had a favourable 1978 financial year, according to the office’s annual report, tabled in Parliament by the Minister in charge of the State Insurance Office (Mr Quigley).

The motor-vehicle thirdparty indemnity fund yielded the State Insurance Office $2,048,025 for the 1978 financial year. This fund, which takes a proportion of motorists’ registration fees at the time of re-registration,

provided several thousand dollars more than was needed to cover the flood claims from Auckland and Southland. Net premium income increased almost SBM to $73.6M, and total gross pretfit before tax reached SI4M. More than 25,000 new policy contracts increased the total number of policies to more than 500,000. However, the report also indicated a more sombre side to the year. According to the recently retired general manager, Mr ' N. R. Ainsworth, the “incidence and cost of motor claims

is a matter of serious concern.”

During 1978, more than 100,000 new motorvehicles claims were reported and the amount paid out totalled $32.6M. Although the problem was growing, Mr Ainsworth said the State Insurance Office did not want to have to increase insurance premiums. Instead, the office aimed to educate the public about road-safety measures. “This was the basis of our advertising campaign last year,” he said.

Claims paid out from all fields during the year exceeded SSIM.