WITH the devastation caused to thousands of homes across the country in recent weeks, Age Concern is highlighting the fact that ONE in FIVE households in the UK do not have home contents insurance.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that many home contents policies have a high minimum sum insured.

This figure is often far greater than the value of the goods that some households wish to insure, leading people to believe that insurance is beyond their means.

Age Concern Insurance Services is an established provider of good quality, competitively priced insurance for older people, and offers home contents cover from as low as £7,000 worth of cover as well as much higher sums.

That said, many older householders need home contents cover well below the minimum sum insured required by some other major insurers.

Commenting, Malcolm Strange, Age Concern's Insurance Officer, said: "It's essential that all older people, including those on lower incomes, have access to home contents and buildings insurance cover that are affordable and represent good value for money.

"The affordability of insurance is even more important when you realise that a fifth of households have no cover at all and that far too many of these will be older persons' households.

"This is one of the key reasons that we at Age Concern introduced our household insurance policy almost 20 years ago."

Cover for postcodes in the Bolton area starts from less than £20 a year for contents and less than £50 a year for buildings and Age Concern offers a cash payment facility which is valued greatly by many older people.

For details of this and the complete range of Age Concern's insurance products, telephone them on 01204 382411 or call in at the Ashburner Street Centre -- between Bolton Market and the bus station.