Insurance providers, including Alexander Forbes and Momentum, confirmed that their clients were abandoning both long-term and short-term products. Alexander Forbes Insurance managing director Gari Dombo said most cancellations were as a result of non-payment, indicating the strain on clients and challenges around affordability.Instead of reducing cover, which Alexander Forbes encouraged, Dombo said, clients normally cancelled the entire policy. Most cancellations were for cars.An estimated 60% of cars in South Africa are uninsured.Economist Dawie Roodt said short-term insurance was one of the first expenses affected when people considered reducing their spending because it was "relatively easy" to cancel or stop.He said cancellations or non-payments of insurance premiums usually occurred at the beginning of the year, during a fragile economic climate or when there was a decline in the economy and an increase in unemployment.Roodt described insurance as a "grudge purchase", adding that because people did not get anything physical in return, it was usually the first cut they considered."There are huge risks to not having insurance because the financial implications are much higher without it if anything goes wrong."To encourage people to keep the protection of their short-term insurance, a collaboration between the SA Insurance Association and the Financial Intermediaries' Association of Southern Africa has been established. Its objective is to keep short-term insurance sustainable for most people.The CEO of the Financial Intermediaries' Association, Justus van Pletzen, said the benefits of short-term insurance were not always apparent to consumers in spite of it being as necessary as a bond or car repayment.South Africans are estimated to spend as much as 49% of their after-tax income on debt repayment...