Aviva paid 96.3% of 2019 individual protection claims

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Aviva individual protection policies paid out £981,997,431 to more than 26,500 UK customers

The UK insurer paid more than £582m to the families of life insurance customers who died or were diagnosed with a terminal illness last year. A total of 16,363 life and terminal illness claims were paid, representing 98.6% of claims received.

For critical illness (CI) and children's CI, Aviva paid out £353m to policyholders or their families - a total of 4,957 claims (93.1%).

Just under half (44%) of CI claims were made by customers who had been diagnosed with a critical illness under the age of 50. Cancer was the most common condition at 66% - rising to 79% for females - while heart attack was second at 11%.

Protection industry pays out 98.3% of 2019 claims in 2019

For claims for children's benefit, cancer was the most common (49%) followed by benign brain tumour (7%) - 94% of CI claims were paid out, averaging at £19,600 each.

Income protection

For individual income protection, £44m in benefit payments were paid to 4,007 customers during last year, including 1,189 as new claims, with 85.7% of new claims accepted.

The average age of customers starting a claim was 43, with musculoskeletal conditions the most common reason (29%), followed by mental health claims (22%).

Aviva said many of its customers were supported back to work by additional services such as physio, counselling and rehabilitation support, as well as Family Carer Benefit.

The insurer also paid out just under £3m to 1,185 customers with fracture cover.

Reasons for decline

Some 6.9% of critical illness claims were declined, with 5.3% due to the medical diagnosis not meeting the policy definition which was set out when the policy was bought, Aviva said.

Of the 1.4% of life insurance and terminal illness benefit claims declined, 0.7% were due to misrepresentation where inaccurate statements about health or lifestyle were made during the application, it added.

Aviva said common reasons for income protection claims being declined include misrepresentation during the application, not being totally unable to work and no loss of income.

Jacqueline Kerwood, claims philosophy manager at Aviva, said: "Paying out a claim is not just about money for us. Our protection claims team handles all our customers' calls with empathy and support, working hard to ease their burden just a little bit at this difficult time. Our job is to make sure that our customers feel safe, heard and protected."

Aviva said its individual protection claims report which will be published later this summer.