Prudential Unveil Life Insurance Incentive Scheme For Customers To Stay Healthy

In a bid to encourage their customers to become healthier, Prudential Insurance, one of Britain's biggest insurers, is to offer large discounts on holidays. The idea is to start 'paying' people to adopt lifestyle changes that will be beneficial to them, like going to the gym, stopping smoking or buying more fruit and vegetables. If customers take on these changes to their daily life, they will be eligible for some attractive rewards.

The move by Prudential comes after Brits topped the table for being Europe's fattest nation, with almost 60 per cent of women in England and Scotland being overweight or obese, and around two thirds of men being declared as too heavy for their height.

The rewards on offer include a £10 return ticket on the Eurostar to Paris, Lille or Brussels, three times a year. Or a 40 per cent discount off unlimited breaks from travel company Mark Warner every year; and with their holidays costing an average of £2,000, Prudential's healthy clients could make a saving of around £800.

Chief executive of PruHealth and PruProtect, Shaun Mattison said, "The most telling statistics show today's children will have lower life expectancy than their parents. This is the first time that this has happened. One third of cancers can be avoidable due to lifestyle choices, mainly obesity and cutting out smoking. We all know what we should be doing to look after ourselves, but we need encouragement to make these changes."

The scheme applies to customers who purchase the PruHealth private medical insurance product, or the life insurance policy PruProtect. All clients begin the plan on Bronze membership despite their weight and fitness and can earn 'Vitality' points to move up through the other levels, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

The points are gained in a number of ways from 10 points for going to the gym, to 200 points for stopping smoking.

The higher the membership level, the better the benefits customers can expect. An example of this is with the return tickets on Eurostar, with Bronze members paying £75, Silver members paying £50, Gold members £25 and Platinum members only having to pay £10.

Policy adviser Matt Morris of LifeSearch, a specialist financial advice company said, "If they are using these extras to flog a poor product then that would be a problem. But these products stack up on there own. From the company's point of view, the healthier customers keep themselves, the less likely they are to have to pay out so it is a win both ways."

The proposal is to be introduced by Prudential at a time when people have less disposable income, in a hope the incentives will be more appealing to people who are looking to make savings.

With firms also charging higher premiums for overweight or obese people, 'fat tax' has resulted in out of shape people struggling to afford the cost of life insurance.

A healthy 55 year old man, who is a non smoker and with no weight problems, would have to pay an average of £1,000 a year for a £150,000 life insurance policy. However, an obese man of the same age would find that their annual premium for a 25 year cover policy would cost them an extra £500.