Aviva pays over half a billion pounds in protection claims in 2013
Aviva protection customers and their families received more than £505m through claims on life insurance and critical illness cover in 2013. This equates to around £1.4m a day, or £961 per minute. The data has been compiled using ABI industry guidelines, which have been introduced for the first time this year and provide customers with certainty that industry statistics have been calculated in a consistent way.
The annual total paid to Aviva life insurance and critical illness customers is the highest to date and shows a steady year-on-year increase. For example, the amount paid to life insurance customers has increased by 61% over the past five years.
During 2013, Aviva paid £347m to the families of life insurance customers who had died or been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and over £158m to customers with critical illness cover.
The data reveals that around 13,600 families benefitted from life and critical illness claims during 2013. This includes 11,441 life insurance claims and 2,171 critical illness claims.
Over the year, the insurer paid 99.3% of life insurance claims and 92.9% of critical illness claims. Of critical illness claims which were not paid, 1.2% were declined due to misrepresentation (non-disclosure), and 5.9% for conditions not met.
Key statistics for 2013 include:
– The average sum paid to critical illness customers was £72,947.
– The average age of critical illness customers was 45 years for women and 48 years for men.
– Cancer remains the most common cause of critical illness claims at 67%, followed by heart attack (11%), stroke (6%), multiple sclerosis (5%) and total permanent disability or TPD (4%).
Robert Morrison, chief underwriter for Aviva says: “For some years now Aviva has been calling on the industry to report claims statistics in a standardised way, so it’s great that guidelines have now been introduced by the ABI. With insurers now adhering to this code – or spelling out any reasons for not following it – this will allow customers and advisers to see clearly how providers compare.
“We’re also very pleased to see how changes to our protection policies are increasing the number of claims paid. For example, last year we paid out £225,000 to customers with in-situ breast cancer. In 2013 we enhanced definitions around some of our most common critical illness conditions including heart attack, stroke, MS and some cancers. We’ve also broadened the terminal illness benefit on our life insurance policies so we can only expect to see even more claims paid to our customers in the future.”
