Other highlights include:
A total of £64.4 million paid out for life claims, a 15% increase on 2015.
A total of £35.4 million paid out for CI claims, a 7% increase on 2015.
Percentage of life, CI and IP claims paid remains broadly in line with 2015 at 98%, 95% and 85% respectively.
Cancer was the most common reason for CI (60%) and life (44%) claims, while most IP claims (27%) were due to mental health related claims in 2016.
26% of life claims paid early under our terminal illness definition.
Life protection claims
The latest figures from Aegon UK reveal that 98% of all life claims were paid out in 2016 to 663 families and businesses, representing payments amounting to £64.4 million, a 15% increase on 2015.
The average size of claim paid was £100,661 and the average age at claim was 61 years old. Cancer continued to be the most common cause of death in a life claim (44%), followed by heart-related conditions (20%).
Terminal illness claims
Life policies also include the sometimes overlooked terminal illness benefit, which means the policy will pay out on diagnosis of an illness, where life expectancy is 12 months or less. These claims are assessed separately from life protection claims.
In total £23 million was paid out early for terminal illness claims in 2016. Aegon paid 95% of all terminal illness claims it received.
Critical illness claims
Aegon paid 95% of critical illness claims which represented payments of £35.4 million, just over £2 million more than the previous year.
The average size of claim paid was £92,860 and the average age at claim for CI was 50 years old.
The ‘big three’ critical illnesses – cancer, heart attack and stroke – accounted for 82.6% of critical illness claims. Cancer alone accounted for 60% of critical illness claims in 2016, followed by heart attacks (15%) and strokes (7.6%).
Of the critical illness claims declined in 2016, nearly 4% were due to the definition not being met and the remaining 1% were due to misrepresentation.
Stephen Crosbie, Protection Director at Aegon UK, said: “In the eyes of our customers and their families, we are only as good as our last paid claim. Our reputation as a trusted provider comes down to whether we pay claims. This is core to our business and central to why people take out protection in the first place.
“We are extremely proud that we continue to pay such a high percentage of claims, however the customer experience at point of claim is just as important as the number of claims paid.”
“In the last year, we’ve taken steps to improve our service and claims experience by reducing the time it takes to claim, introducing our supportive health and wellbeing service (provided by Health Assured) and using electronic death certificates to avoid delays. This is in addition to offering claimants the opportunity to use our tele-claims service to help make claiming as easy as possible.”
“We always look to pay claims, putting customers and their needs at the heart of what we do. If they find themselves having to make a claim and deal with the emotional and financial upheaval a death or serious illness can bring, our experienced team of claims assessors are on hand to support them when it matters most.”
Benefits of e-death certificates
• Reduces the turn-around time for a death claim from several weeks to just seven days.
• Claimants will receive their payment quickly.
• Reduces the risk of important documents getting lost.
• Reduces the paperwork a claimant has to complete or eliminates it altogether.
• Reduces the risk of a fraudulent claim using fake death certificates.
Income protection claims
Aegon’s income protection claims experience reveals that last year, Aegon UK paid 85% of new claims received, remaining broadly in line with the claims paid in 2015, and almost £343,000 in regular monthly benefits.
Stephen Crosbie, Protection Director at Aegon UK, on income protection claims figures: “The low number of claims we continue to receive on this type of protection policy can impact the figures dramatically. With only 22 claims received last year, a single decline can make all the difference, so while this year the number of claims paid has remained static, it will only take one declined claim next year to completely change our story. However, while we don’t believe this data can provide any meaningful like-for-like comparison, we continue to share it for the sake of complete transparency for both advisers and customers.”
|
