Our 2021 claims statistics

Our 2021 Claims Statistics

In 2021, we paid over £797 million across our Life, Critical Illness Cover, Terminal Illness Cover and Income Protection, to support 16,890 customers and their families. That’s £34 million more than 2020 and raises the total amount Legal & General has paid in individual protection claims over the last five years to £3.5 billion. Every year we strive to help even more - because we’re committed to being there for customers in their time of need.

Covid-19 statistics

The arrival of Covid-19 had an unparalleled impact upon our lives in 2020 and continued to do so in 2021. We were able to support 1,579 families who sadly lost loved ones due to factors caused by Covid-19, paying out a total of £73.8 million in individual life insurance* claims. This was over £34.6 million more than 2020, adding up to over £113 million paid out across the two years since the pandemic emerged.

2021 also saw the continuation of our Long Covid Intervention Package, which is available to all income protection customers who experience fatigue and associated symptoms following Covid-19. The package includes eight hours of therapy assessment and rehabilitation time.

Key figures

Our claims page shows our claims figures in full, and here are some of the key stats:

A word from our Director of Claims and Underwriting, David Banks

“As a result of the last two years, it's clear more people now appreciate the importance of protection.

One in seven of all death claims we paid out was because of Covid-19. This new health threat wasn’t even on our radar a short time ago, which underlines the unexpected can happen at any time, to any of us.

This is why we launched Umbrella Benefits last year, alongside the continuation of our Long-Covid support programme, to offer additional support to clients and their immediate families. We know early intervention can be key in preventing ill health from progressing and help clients with a range of conditions; from mental health through to grief, serious illness recovery to later life planning. Supporting our customers and their families during life’s most difficult moments is the real story behind our business.

Over the last year, recruiting more staff, delivering more training and ensuring regular updates throughout the claims process has improved our claims service. We're focussed on being there for our customers and their loved ones with the support they need, at the times when they need it the most.”

How we’re going further for our customers

Every customer is important to us. We’re continually listening to feedback and we’ve introduced more improvements to our process, alongside sharing helpful information to ensure your clients receive the best service and they have their claim paid as quickly as possible.

• Claims go digital

Our new digital claim management system ‘MyClaim’, allows individuals to easily manage their claims. It keeps them updated with the progress of their application via automated emails and texts, delivering support throughout the process. Each claimant is assigned a designated handler to take on their case, ensuring a tailored approach that meets everyone’s individual needs.

• More claims, more recruitment and training

We’ve hired more resource, to support with calls and reviews and we’ll continue recruitment this year. This includes experienced external assessors and training of internal colleagues to become assessors. Meanwhile, a number of our health team members have been providing support with death claims which is a benefit of having a multi skilled team.

• Project Smile

For every valid Children’s Critical Illness Claim that we pay, we would like to send a gift to show our customers we’re thinking of them. The gift is sent to the child at their home address, gift wrapped and with a personal message from us. The claims assessor will have a conversation with parents to establish the child’s preferences and appropriateness, and it will be sent once the claims payment is safely received.  

Find out more about how we’re helping your clients, and how you can help us to pay more claims.

*Life & Over 50's life insurance