Are Your Back To School Items Covered?

The cost of going back to school costs parents significantly but are all the items covered by home insurance? Do you know where you stand with regard to items outside the home?

According to research by Gocompare.com, on average, parents will spend £134 kitting out each child for the start of the new school year.

For many the back to school items are the obvious school uniform, school shoes, PE kit, trainers and football boots, pends and pencils and a new school bag or rucksack. Already quite a list making it important to consider how to cut the cost of going back to school – using the competition amongst supermarkets on school uniform costs to your advantage for example.

In 2010 though, as well as the obvious items, a growing number of 4 to 16 year old students will also be receiving a new mobile phone or laptop computer.

The research shows that around half of all children aged between 4 and 16 have taken a mobile phone to school while 20% have taken their MP3 player.  Some 12% of children have taken a digital camera to school and 6% a laptop computer.

Worryingly though 20% of the children admit to either losing, damaging or having electronic gadgets stolen while at school – as well as mobile phones and laptops, there are also MP3 players and Nintendo DS machines and of course musical instruments taken to school.

Phil Paterson-Fox, head of home and pet insurance at Gocompare.com, said: “While getting children ready to go ‘back to school’ can be expensive at this time of year, parents are increasingly faced with the prospect of their children packing their school bags with ever more valuable items.

While parents will manage the challenge in their own way, it is worth checking the terms of your home contents insurance to know exactly where you stand with regard to items outside the home.”

If you have a high value home or contents then standard buildings and contents insurance is unlikely to extend to fully service your needs. You may be better placed to take out a High Value or High Net Worth insurance policy to ensure that you have your buildings, contents and valuables adequately insured.