- Charities ALONE, Barnardos and Pieta will receive donations as part of insurer’s Covid-19 relief strategy
- Donations to be used to provide food parcels, hot meals, support services to the elderly, and counselling support to families across Ireland;
- Liberty customers were given option of claiming ‘Covid-19’ relief on their motor premium as grocery or fuel voucher or donating to a charity fighting Covid-19;
Dublin, 5 October, 2020.
As part of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Liberty Insurance has today confirmed that it is donating €1.85 million on behalf of its customers in Ireland to its three Irish charity partners, ALONE, Barnardos and Pieta.
The three charities will each receive over €618,000 toward their frontline efforts in the fight against Covid-19.
Fighting Covid-19 Strategy
In June of this year, Liberty activated the €5 million Motor Policy COVID-19 Relief Fund, offering relief to its motor insurance customers in Ireland on their existing premiums. As part of this gesture, the insurer pledged to giving each customer relief to the value of 15% of their premium for two months, subject to a minimum amount of €10.
Customers were given the option of directly claiming the premium relief through a ‘cash equivalent voucher’ for SuperValu or Circle K, or alternatively, they could request that Liberty donate the relief to one of its three charity partners working on the front-line in the fight against Covid-19.
Liberty rolled out an extensive 8-week customer information campaign – both directly and through its broker network – to encourage all eligible policyholders to claim their relief entitlement. Liberty customers who choose not to receive their relief in the form of a cash equivalent voucher will have a charity donation made on their behalf from Liberty.
Relief in numbers
59% of customers claimed their relief, with 54% of these customers requesting it in the form of a SuperValu voucher, 35% as a Circle K voucher and 11% choosing for their relief to donated to charity. 41% took no action as Liberty had advised all eligible policyholders that all unclaimed relief would be donated to charity.
Throughout the pandemic Barnardos has provided over 9,500 hot meals to vulnerable families across Ireland. This donation will ensure they can continue to provide frontline services for children who need their support.
ALONE has gone from supporting 5,000 to 12,000 older people in the last six months. The charity will deploy the funding toward maintaining its support services, including befriending services, housing provision and assistive-technology into the future.
Pieta will utilise the funding toward life-saving counselling for those engaging in self-harm or who are at risk of suicide.
The customer relief fund was part of Liberty Insurance’s wider response to Covid-19. Other measures introduced by the insurer include greater flexibility on payment terms for motor and home insurance premiums, Liberty’s ‘House the Heroes’ partnership with Daft.ie to provide much needed accommodation for doctors and nurses on the Covid-19 frontline, and at European-level, Liberty Insurance has made a €250,000 donation to Doctors Without Borders and The Red Cross.
Comment
Tom McIlduff, CEO of Liberty Western Europe Markets comments: “Every time we make a decision at Liberty, our guiding principle is to do the right thing, and to put our customers and employees first. We recognise that the last eight months has proven extremely challenging for many of our customers, but also for wider society as a whole.
“Our charity partners ALONE, Barnardos and Pieta have played a critical role in supporting many of the most vulnerable people in society through the Pandemic, particularly vulnerable children and their families, individuals at risk of social exclusion and those with mental health challenges. Arguably, their work has never been more important. However, like so many other sectors, they have taken a major financial hit in recent months and have seen many of their core fundraising activities undermined, disrupted, or even cancelled.
“Thanks to the kindness of our customers in choosing to donate their motor policy relief, we are pleased to be able to make even a small financial contribution toward supporting the vital services our three charity partners provide within the community. We will continue to explore other ways of supporting our customers, colleagues and charity partners through this challenging time.”
Commenting on the donation, Seán Moynihan, CEO of ALONE said: “The donation from Liberty Insurance will have a huge impact on ALONE’s ability to sustain and build on our national response to the urgent needs of older people over the next 18 months. We would like to thank the customers of Liberty Insurance as it is generosity like this that enables us to respond and support the thousands of older people who need our help. We are so appreciative of your support.”
Expressing their gratitude for the donation, Suzanne Connolly, CEO of Barnardos said: “Thank you so much to the customers of Liberty Insurance for choosing to donate your premium refund to charity. Each individual amount that Liberty customers have donated has resulted in a huge overall donation that will make a massive impact to the lives of the most vulnerable children across our communities in Ireland today. On behalf of the children and families of Barnardos, thank you.”
Outlining the support that this donation will bring, Dr Sam Gower, Clinical Director at Pieta said: “The generous donation will be used to fund our life-saving counselling for those engaging in self-harm or who are at risk of suicide. We support thousands of people every year, many of whom are young people. The funds you are providing means we can continue in this very difficult environment to support people in crisis on their journey from a place of darkness to a place of hope.”
