Staking her claim

WHAT WOULD you call a sociable, outgoing numbers-cruncher who does a bit of investigative detecting as well? A claims handler of course.

Not a very precise description, perhaps, but it is a loose, user-friendly pen portrait of what Penny Jackson does.

She does the job - claims handling, that is - for FBD Insurance, a general insurance company (formerly an agriculture-based insurer). Based in Dublin, she deals with people and their claims, handling their misfortunes - often the stuff of which soap operas are made: accidents, fires, floods, theft.

"It's interesting," she says. "All sorts of things happen to people." She admits that, amid the tragedy, she occasionally sees a funny side: "The way people write things down in the claims form is even comical sometimes."

However, some of her clients can be distraught when they reach her on the telephone. Their house and all their worldly possessions may have just been destroyed by fire.

"It's very difficult to console them," she says. "You have to ensure them that the cover is there (after making sure that it is). All you can do is say `we'll get someone out as soon as we can'. A lot of people are relieved to know that there are people there to look after it." The insurance company, she says, is often a source of help and consolation to people in these times of great stress.

Jackson's work involves making calls to people all over Ireland - investigating and checking information and making decisions based on their claims. She has to make sure that all the necessary details have been included in a claim form, and she has to decide whether a claim is covered or not.

"Ultimately," she says, "it's a service, and you have to serve the customers. You have to treat them as you would in any other business. They have paid all those years, you have to be the final link. We are the only people who have dealings with them apart from the sales reps etc at the beginning of the process."

She talks to the people who are making claims, as well as brokers, gardai, loss adjusters and various other agents. Her skills as a communicator, a negotiator and a level-headed arbitrator are invaluable.

As a graduate in insurance of the University of Limerick, she is one of a new breed of recruit within the business. She believes that there is an appreciative recognition among employers of those who go into insurance as graduates.

Traditionally most people start from Leaving Cert (see below), whereas Jackson and her classmates started with a degree and specialist knowledge in the field. "We knew all the different policies and the way they worked," she explains.

Jackson was always interested in accountancy and the other business related subjects at school. "I like figures, I like calculating and working things through. I suppose it suits me. That is what insurance is all about."

After completing her Leaving Cert in 1988 at St Andrew's College in Blackrock, Co Dublin, she registered at UL - deliberately choosing this particular degree course because of its insurance component. She graduated in 1992 with the BA in European studies. specialising in insurance. Now she is completing her thesis for a master's degree.

Earlier in her postgrad studies she worked as a teaching assistant to insurance students. She started work as a claims handler in 1994 with Irish Life Assurance, where her main responsibilities included the registration and maintenance of claims up to a value of £10,000 and settlement of claims up to £20,000.

"Once I got in I progressed quickly," she says. "All of us from my class progressed fairly fast. We had the ground work."

After some more experience, perhaps between five and 10 years in the business, she hopes to become a loss adjuster. This would involve travel outside the office to investigate and estimate claims, further employing the skills she is already perfecting.