Calls are being made for the insurance industry to support students as they attempt to travel home during a six-day window this Christmas.

Flexible insurance provider Cuvva is asking for providers to give students an ‘early Christmas present’ of rebates or increased flexible cover to help them navigate the tricky conditions surrounding this year’s festive period.

Each year close to two million students travel an average of 91 miles home from University and, with varying degrees of lockdown measures applied across the country, this year looks set to be even more difficult than usual for those looking to get back to their families.

Freddy Macnamara, CEO of Cuvva, commented: “The festive period is always a high-pressure time for student travel, this year more so than ever. Government restrictions give students a very tight deadline to return to their families, navigating rapid testing and varied national lockdown restrictions. Students and their families need the flexibility to make these journeys as safe and stress-free as they can be. The insurance industry must recognise the particular challenges of students under lockdown and adapt to meet consumers’ needs.

Students have a six-day ‘travel window’ to make their journey home.

Despite the challenges students face, inflexible annual insurance policies limit students’ options for borrowing friends’ or family vehicles. The majority of the UK’s leading car insurers do not offer flexible cover as an option.

Macnamara added: “Locking consumers into Inflexible annual premiums, with few options for flexible cover to adapt to challenges this year has presented, means students’ options for borrowing or lending vehicles for these important journeys is restricted.

“At the end of an incredibly difficult year, students need the opportunity to celebrate and spend time with their loved ones, and to do so as easily and safely as possible. The least the industry can do is give consumers a much deserved and early Christmas present by offering rebates for vehicles many have been unable to use regularly during lockdown, whilst also ensuring that they do all they can to help students get home easily and safely to their families for Christmas.”