The percentage of life and critical illness (CI) claims paid remains broadly in line with 2016 at 98% and 94% respectively.
Life protection claims
The latest figures from Aegon UK reveal that 98% of all life claims were paid in 2017 to 687 families and businesses, representing payments amounting to £58.1 million.
The average size of claim paid was £84,648 and the average age at claim was 61 years old. Cancer continued to be the most common cause of death in a life claim (42%), followed by heart-related conditions (23%).
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.
24% of life claims were paid early under our terminal illness definition and Aegon paid 94% of all terminal illness claims it received. In total £23.7 million was paid for terminal illness claims in 2017, helping over 200 families and businesses put their financial affairs in order prior to death.
Critical illness claims
Aegon paid 94% of CI claims which represented payments of £37.6 million, just over £2 million more than the previous year.
The average size of claim paid was £86,037 and the average age at claim was 50 years old.
The ‘big three’ critical illnesses – cancer, heart attack and stroke – accounted for 80% of critical illness claims. Cancer alone accounted for 60% of critical illness claims in 2017, followed by heart attacks (14%) and strokes (6%).
Of the critical illness claims declined in 2017, nearly 5% were due to the definition not being met and the remaining 1% were due to misrepresentation.
Simon Jacobs, Head of Claims and Underwriting at Aegon UK, said: “We are proud that our claims figures continue to be strong and consistent. Figures like these continue to chip away at the misperception that providers don’t pay claims, which will start to improve consumer confidence and trust in providers.
“We’ve reported our claims experience for more than ten years and in this time we’ve worked closely with advisers to reduce incidents of misrepresentation and ensure that customers have the best claims experience. But for Aegon, the customer experience at point of claim is equally important to the number of claims paid.
“Our claims team and supportive health and wellbeing service (provided by Health Assured) help customers and their families through some of the most devastating situations they might ever face. Each customer and their family will have a different, difficult situation they are dealing with and appreciate the sensitivity our claims assessors offer when it matters most.”
Income protection claims
Aegon’s income protection claims experience reveals that last year, Aegon UK paid 96% of new claims received, and over £426,000 in regular monthly benefits. Cancer was the most common reason for IP claims (29%) in 2017.
Simon Jacobs, Head of Claims and Underwriting 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 25 claims received last year, a single decline can make a big difference. The number of claims paid has remained static. 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.”
These figures have been compiled using the ABI guidance for calculating claims statistics.
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