Scottish Widows haspublished details of its life and critical illness claims, which show that an average of over £4 million was paid out every week in 2013 in claims and since January 2000 the total combined amount paid to customers is over £1.7 billion.
In 2013 Scottish Widows paid out 99% of life and 90% of critical illness claims. The percentage of critical illness claims declined due to non-disclosure was 2.5% and claims where the definition was not met was 7.5%.
Life claims paid have totalled over £129 million or almost £2.5 million on average every week in 2013. Critical illness claims paid over the same period total over £83 million or almost £1.6 million on average every week.
Looking at the number of claims paid since 2000, there have been over 34, 311 individual claims paid for life cover and over 16,122 for critical illness cover.
Life claims
Taking life cover in isolation, nearly half (46%) of claims made in 2013 were as a result of cancer, followed by heart related conditions (20%). Split by gender, cancer was the reason for claim in 56% of cases for females, and 40% for males. Heart related claims accounted for 11% of cases for females and 25% for males. The average age of a claimant for women was 58 years and for men was 59 years.
Critical illness claims
For critical illness, the main three reasons for making a claim remain cancer (66%), heart related illness (15%) and stroke (7%). Amongst males, 51% of claims made were for cancer, 28% for a heart related illness and 8% for stroke. 81% of claims among females were for cancer, 6% for stroke and 5% for multiple sclerosis. The average age of a male claimant was 49 years and for a female claimant 48 years.
Esther Dijkstra, Head of Protection commented: “Since 2000 we have helped over 50,000 individuals and families and the £4m we paid in life and critical illness claims every week last year shows the value of taking out cover. We are committed to protection as a business and developing the best products for the market so that more people have adequate protection. It is vital that people do evaluate their needs regularly as their circumstances change.”
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