Critical Illness Insurance Payouts Continuing to Rise
Personal_Finance / Insurance Apr 20, 2010 - 06:06 AM GMTBy: MoneyFacts
More critical illness claims were paid out than ever before in 2009, as the problem of non-disclosure continued to be eradicated from the protection industry, a new survey from Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts has revealed.
According to the research, insurers paid out an average of 90.5% of all critical illness claims last year, up from the figure of 88.4% reported by LifeSearch in 2008. When the clamour for claims statistics to be published first began six years ago, the figure was closer to 75%. Nine of the 12 providers listed either improved on or maintained the level of payouts they achieved in 2008.
Legal & General was found to have paid out the highest proportion of claims during 2009 (93.6%), closely followed by AXA and Bright Grey (93%) (see Table 1). The number of claims rejected for not meeting the definition of the illness set out in the policy was found to have dropped to 7.6%, down from 9.1%. However, even more encouraging was that just 1.9% of claims were rejected on the basis of non-disclosure, where the claimant has been adjudged to have withheld pertinent information during their application for the policy, compared with 2.5% in 2008.
Richard Eagling, Editor of Investment Life and Pensions Moneyfacts, said: “With non-disclosure having long been a contentious issue within the critical illness industry, it appears the efforts of providers and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to tackle the problem are finally being rewarded. The improvement in the claims statistics can only serve to improve confidence in the critical illness proposition.”
Table 1: Critical illness claims statistics 2009
Insurer |
Claims paid |
Claims declined |
Declined |
Declined due to not meeting definition |
| AEGON | 88% | 12% | 4% | 8% |
| Aviva (Jan 09 – June 09) |
89% | 11% | 2% | 9% |
| AXA (Sept 08 –Aug 09) |
93% | 7% | 3% | 4% |
| Bright Grey | 93% | 7% | 2% | 5% |
| BUPA | 88% | 12% | 2% | 10% |
| Friends Provident | 92.6% | 7.4% | 2.1% | 5.3% |
| Legal & General | 93.6% | 6.4% | 1.8% | 4.6% |
| LV= | 90% | 10% | 3% | 7% |
| Royal Liver (Jan 09 – Nov 09) |
86% | 14% | 0% | 14% |
| Scottish Provident | 91.3% | 8.7% | 1.7% | 7% |
| Skandia | 91% | 9% | 0% | 9% |
| Zurich | 91% | 9% | 1% | 8% |
| Average 2009 | 90.5% | 9.5% | 1.9% | 7.6% |
| Average 2008 (source: LifeSearch) | 88.4% | 11.6% | 2.5% | 9.1% |
www.moneyfacts.co.uk - The Money Search Engine
Moneyfacts.co.uk is the UK's leading independent provider of personal finance information. For the last 20 years, Moneyfacts' information has been the key driver behind many personal finance decisions, from the Treasury to the high street.
© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.
