Swedish ICMIF member Folksam has launched a new child insurance offering to meet the needs of households during a time of tough economic pressures and cost of living increases.

According to statistics from Insurance Sweden, as many as 1.5 million+ children and young people do not have an individual child insurance. Many households are facing a challenging economic situation which is forcing them to review their expenses, including the cost of insurance, and in the worst case, says Folksam, this leads to child protection being opted out. The mutual insurer has therefore launched a new child insurance offering to meet the needs of households in a tough period.

Although the number of individual child insurance policies has increased in recent years, many children and young people in Sweden still lack adequate protection in the event of an accident. In addition to compensating in the event of injury or illness, child insurance can also provide compensation if a child becomes permanently disabled or incapacitated due to illness or accident.

“Children who do not have child insurance and suffer from an illness or accident that prevents them from working in adulthood risk having a very tough time financially as they are only entitled to the basic benefits in the general social security system. There are far too many parents who believe that society’s protection is sufficient in this type of event, but it provides very little protection,” says Jens Wikström, Business Area Manager for Folksam.

According to Insurance Sweden, more than 300,000 children and young people in Sweden have group insurance, which in some cases is limited in its scope. At Folksam, on the other hand, there is no difference in content between group insurance and individual insurance.

“Children are the most important thing we have and our common goal is to be able to offer security to as many children as possible. We have listened to our customers who have asked for greater choice among our child insurance policies. Therefore, we have now developed a customised product where the customer can choose what desired financial security they want to receive through the insurance, in the hope that more children will be equipped for the future,” concludes Jens Wikström.

The new offer covers both individual child insurance policies and group child insurance policies and was launched on 1 January 2024.