Protection update - Issue 104

Legal & General pays 92.8% of critical illness cover claims in 2008

2008 claims statistics

We’re pleased to announce another record breaking year for critical illness claims. We paid £146 million in critical illness claims last year –a third more than the £110.1 million that we paid in 2007. In the last five years alone we have paid out nearly half a billion pounds in critical illness claims.

We paid 92.8% of CIC claims in 2008 compared to 88.2% in 2007. This continuing positive trend is a testament to the work that we put into reducing non-disclosure. We have been at the forefront of the ABI changes to the way that all insurers view non-disclosure, with a view to paying out more claims as an industry.

Finalised claims rejected for non-disclosure have fallen again this year (by 45%), to just 4.2%. The proportion of claims rejected due to not meeting the policy definition was 3%, down from 4.1% in 2007. The most common conditions we paid out on were cancer, terminal illness, heart attack, stroke and multiple sclerosis.

We also paid £215 million in life insurance claims last year, helping over 4800 families when they needed it most. The proportion of claims accepted was 98.1%.

Our commitment

In the past 12 months we have worked hard to pay more claims and will continue to highlight the potential impact of non-disclosure through our literature.

In 2007, we were the first insurer to alter our ongoing duty of disclosure for our customers as experience showed that people may not have realised the need to disclose changes to their health right up until their policy start date. We feel that this is treating customers fairly and will help to ensure that we can pay eligible claims.

We continue to invest in our claims management process, which ensures that fairness to the customer is paramount. Our claims assessors are highly skilled with a continual focus on quality and training.

For more information please contact the protection sales team or your usual Legal & General contact.