Can travel insurer demand receipts?

My partner and I travelled to Turkey last summer with her two teenage children. We already had annual travel insurance, so she took out separate travel insurance for them with InsureandGo.

On our return to Gatwick, we were separated from her daughter's luggage and eventually filed a report at the lost luggage office, and were left with an extremely tearful teenager. It took several months for the airline to admit that the luggage was irretrievably lost. We set out to make a claim with InsureandGo but discovered it refuses to pay for the lost items unless receipts are provided.
Is this standard policy for all insurers? Is it reasonable to expect every customer to retain receipts for every item ever purchased? Margaret Stone, of the Daily Mail, replies: Technically, the claim should have been made by the policyholder, your partner's daughter. But it appears that you made the claim which led to some confusion.

I think you have been deterred by what you saw as the need to provide proof of purchase for every item in the piece of lost luggage. But as you say, it is unreasonable in the extreme to demand a receipt for everything - and InsureandGo agrees with you.

Yes, it would like to see some evidence to back up the claim - for example, you might have a receipts for a camera or snorkelling equipment, and your debit/credit card statements should provide even more evidence of goods bought.

Photographs of the girl wearing her doubtless expensive trainers or some favourite, now sadly lost, clothes are another source of information (all insurers make deductions for wear and tear on clothing). InsureandGo will contact you to discuss this - and it is sending a claim form too.