The poll by MyVoucherCodes.co.uk questioned 1,467 people in the UK, aged 18-25 and living away from their parents. Its findings showed that 78% of the respondents were renting their home, while the remaining 22% had a mortgage.

Of the respondents that admitted to not having home insurance, 41% were students while 7% had a mortgage. When questioned why this was the case more than half, 54%, claimed they didn’t have contents insurance because they just ‘hadn’t got round to it’ while 6% admitted that they thought it was a ‘waste of money’ and 11% said they were ‘unable to afford it’. Almost 1 in 10, 9%, of those without contents insurance thought they’d ‘never need it’.

Of the respondents that did have contents insurance, 12% thought it was ‘a legal requirement’ and 3% of the respondents admitted to needing contents insurance in the past when they didn’t actually have it.

Only 21% of the total respondents with a policy had made a claim on their contents insurance in the past.

Farhad Farhadi, personal finance expert at MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, commented on the findings: “Contents insurance is something every young person should be thinking about, whether they are renting their home or they have a mortgage. People need to be clear about what kind of policy they need; when renting, tenants just need contents insurance most of the time, as the landlord should have the building covered. Those with mortgages need to look into both home and contents insurance.

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“If you are ever unsure as to the kind of policy you need to be fully protected, just do a bit of research beforehand. When renting a property, discuss this with your landlord or the lettings agency.”

He concluded: “What was quite surprising, was that quite a high number of those without contents insurance were students and, as a recent study of ours has shown, students typically have many valuable items in their accommodation, like laptops, televisions and cameras.”