Historic vehicle insurance claims are best understood by combining a specialist classic-car snapshot with wider UK motor-insurance benchmarks. ERS recorded 5 claims among 1,829 Classic Car (SWH) policies in its 2025 underwriting year, while broader FCA and ABI figures show how claim costs, repairs, theft, and write-offs have changed across the UK.
Contents
- Specialist classic-car claims snapshot
- Claims frequency and average cost
- How UK motor claims changed from 2019 to 2023
- Notified costs by damage and loss type
- Write-offs, recoveries, and repair pressure
- The latest UK claims totals
Specialist classic-car claims snapshot
The clearest directly specialist evidence in this dataset comes from the ERS Product Value Form: Personal Motor Enthusiast Insurance 2026. Its figures relate specifically to the 2025 underwriting year and were correct at the time of writing. They cover ERS products, rather than every historic vehicle insurer or every British-built classic car.
For the ERS Classic Car (SWH) product, the company reported 1,829 policies in force and 5 claims. The resulting claims frequency was 0.2%. ERS accepted all 5 claims and rejected none. The product’s total claims payout was £18,893, with an average payout of £3,778.60. Its 98th-percentile claims payout was £9,742.52. ERS Product Value Form: Personal Motor Enthusiast Insurance 2026
The same disclosure provides a useful specialist comparison, although the Enthusiast product is not identical to the Classic Car (SWH) product. It recorded 94 claims from 5,319 policies in force, giving a 1.0% claims frequency. ERS paid £794,302 across those claims, an average of £8,450.02 per claim. The 98th-percentile payout was £63,036.50. Two claims were recorded as walkaways, equal to 2.1% of claims. ERS Product Value Form: Personal Motor Enthusiast Insurance 2026
| ERS product, 2025 underwriting year | Policies in force | Claims | Claims frequency | Average payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Car (SWH) | 1,829 | 5 | 0.2% | £3,778.60 |
| Enthusiast | 5,319 | 94 | 1.0% | £8,450.02 |
These two rows should not be treated as a universal rate for historic cars. They describe separate ERS products with their own portfolios and underwriting-year results. They do, however, show why the number of vehicles insured and the product definition matter when reading a classic-car claims statistic.
Claims frequency and average cost
The FCA’s Motor Insurance Claims Analysis - multi-firm review 2025 supplies a broader UK benchmark. Its sample’s overall claims frequency was 12.8% in 2019. It fell to 9.5% in 2020, then measured 10.6% in 2021, 11.6% in 2022, and 11.9% in 2023. The 2020 result is the low point in this five-year sequence, while the 2023 figure remained below the 2019 level. Motor Insurance Claims Analysis - multi-firm review 2025
The FCA sample’s average claim cost moved in the opposite direction over the full period. It was £2,410 in 2019, £2,476 in 2020, £2,629 in 2021, £3,106 in 2022, and £3,293 in 2023. The FCA reports the 2023 average as 37% above 2019. Thus, the available benchmark shows a 2023 frequency of 11.9% alongside a materially higher average claim cost than the £2,410 recorded in 2019. Motor Insurance Claims Analysis - multi-firm review 2025
Claims cost per policy followed a similar pattern after 2020. The FCA sample recorded £309 in 2019, £236 in 2020, £278 in 2021, £360 in 2022, and £391 in 2023. The 2023 figure was 27% above 2019. These figures are UK motor-insurance sample benchmarks, not estimates of the cost per policy for a classic British car portfolio. Motor Insurance Claims Analysis - multi-firm review 2025
How UK motor claims changed from 2019 to 2023
The FCA figures describe a market in which claim severity rose more consistently than claim frequency. For an owner of a historic vehicle, that distinction is important: fewer or stable claims do not necessarily mean that the financial exposure attached to each claim is stable.
The five-year figures can be read together as follows:
- Overall claims frequency: 12.8% in 2019, 9.5% in 2020, 10.6% in 2021, 11.6% in 2022, and 11.9% in 2023.
- Average claim cost: £2,410 in 2019, £2,476 in 2020, £2,629 in 2021, £3,106 in 2022, and £3,293 in 2023.
- Claims cost per policy: £309 in 2019, £236 in 2020, £278 in 2021, £360 in 2022, and £391 in 2023.
The FCA sample covers 12 firms rather than the whole UK market. Its claims-cost figures are notified costs and include reserves for claims not yet settled; one claim can contain multiple heads of claim. Those qualifications matter when comparing the general benchmark with the ERS specialist disclosure, where the product-level payout figures are presented for the 2025 underwriting year.
Notified costs by damage and loss type
The FCA’s notified claims costs show different trajectories for bodily injury, accidental damage, property damage, and vehicle theft. Bodily-injury costs were £2,712 million in 2019, £2,091 million in 2020, £2,328 million in 2021, £2,903 million in 2022, and £2,894 million in 2023. The 2023 total was 7% above 2019.
Accidental-damage costs were £1,597 million in 2019, £1,227 million in 2020, £1,608 million in 2021, £2,148 million in 2022, and £2,424 million in 2023. The 2023 figure was 52% above 2019, making accidental damage the largest percentage increase among the listed non-theft cost categories over that comparison.
Property-damage costs were £1,491 million in 2019, £1,084 million in 2020, £1,409 million in 2021, £1,847 million in 2022, and £2,148 million in 2023. The 2023 figure was 44% above 2019.
Vehicle-theft costs were £298 million in 2019, £252 million in 2020, £316 million in 2021, £500 million in 2022, and £533 million in 2023. The 2023 total was 79% above 2019. These are notified UK motor-insurance costs, not a specialist historic-vehicle theft series. Motor Insurance Claims Analysis - multi-firm review 2025
| Notified cost category | 2019 | 2023 | Reported change to 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury | £2,712m | £2,894m | 7% above 2019 |
| Accidental damage | £1,597m | £2,424m | 52% above 2019 |
| Property damage | £1,491m | £2,148m | 44% above 2019 |
| Vehicle theft | £298m | £533m | 79% above 2019 |
Write-offs, recoveries, and repair pressure
The FCA sample settled 272,042 first-party vehicle write-offs in 2019. In 2023 it settled 296,135, reported as 9% more than in 2019. A write-off count is not the same as a classic-car claim count, but it is a useful indicator of the wider motor market’s settlement volume.
Average recovery by non-fault insurers from third parties was £2,780 per write-off in 2019 and £4,134 in 2023, which the FCA reports as 49% above 2019. The average insured vehicle value also rose, from £9,319 in 2019 to £13,223 in 2023, a 42% increase. Motor Insurance Claims Analysis - multi-firm review 2025
Repair costs increased for each fuel type listed in the FCA review. Average repair cost for petrol and diesel vehicles rose from £2,350 in 2019 to £3,344 in 2023, a 42% increase. For electric vehicles, the average rose from £2,908 to £4,197, a 44% increase. For hybrid vehicles, it rose from £2,393 to £4,012, a 68% increase. These categories do not identify historic British cars specifically, but they quantify the repair-cost pressure in the wider UK sample.
For classic owners, the ERS specialist figures show a different scale and spread between its two disclosed products. The Classic Car (SWH) average payout was £3,778.60, with a 98th-percentile payout of £9,742.52. The Enthusiast average was £8,450.02, while its 98th-percentile payout was £63,036.50. The figures demonstrate why an average alone does not describe the higher-cost end of claims.
The latest UK claims totals
The Association of British Insurers reported that UK motor insurers dealt with 2.4 million motor-insurance claims during 2024. They paid £11.7 billion in car-insurance claims, 17% more than in 2023. The average private motor-insurance claim paid in 2024 was about £4,900, 13% higher than in 2023. Motor claims hit record £11.7 billion in 2024
The ABI also reported that the average private motor claim reached £5,300 in the fourth quarter of 2024. Vehicle repairs cost UK motor insurers £7.7 billion during 2024, £1.5 billion more than in 2023. The average claim for theft of or from a vehicle was £11,200 in the fourth quarter of 2024. These are UK totals and averages for the broader motor-insurance market, not forecasts and not a measurement limited to historic or British cars. Motor claims hit record £11.7 billion in 2024
Taken together, the specialist ERS disclosure and the wider UK benchmarks separate three different questions: how often a covered vehicle generates a claim, how much a typical claim costs, and how large the upper end of the payout distribution can be. For historic vehicle insurance, the directly specialist 2025 evidence is the ERS Classic Car (SWH) result of 5 claims from 1,829 policies, a 0.2% claims frequency, £18,893 in total payouts, and a £9,742.52 98th-percentile payout. The FCA and ABI figures provide context on the broader repair, theft, write-off, and claims-cost environment through 2024.