Cancer and Cardiac remain the leading reasons for Life and Specified Illness claims
Almost 50% of Income Protection claimants were under 50 years of age
September 6, 2020, Dublin: Aviva Life & Pensions, one of Ireland’s leading insurers, today reported that the company paid out just over €100 million in life claims in 2019 (€104 million in 2018). The company paid 2,168 claimants (2018: 2,186) across its death benefit, specified illness and income protection policies last year. The average age of income protection claimants was 46 years, with almost 50% of them under the age of 50 at the time of the claim.
Death benefit claims:
The company paid 430 (2018: 436) death benefit claims, amounting to €45 million (2018: €49 m.) in total, with the largest claim pay-out of €1.3 million, of which there were two claims of that amount. The leading causes of claims continues to be cancer, cardiac and respiratory issues.
Specified Illness claims:
Some 138 claimants (2018:152) were paid €12.4 million (2018: €12.7m.) during the year. The average age of female claimants was 49 with breast cancer accounting for 45% of those claims and other cancers representing 31%. Some 60% of claims from men were cancer related, while 25% of them had suffered cardiac issues. The average age of male claimants was 53.
Income protection claims:
A long-term illness or period of time out of work can mean real financial hardship and add to the stress caused to those effected. In the past year, the company paid out €45 million (2018: €42m.) to over 1,600 claimants (2018: 1625), the majority of whom (29%) experienced orthopaedic issues. Some 22% of those who claimed suffered psychological issues, whilst 15% suffered some form of cancer, although the number of those recorded last year reduced by 5%.
Commenting, Richard Jones, Aviva Life & Pensions said: “We continue to see significant volumes of claims across our protection products of life, specified illness and income protection on an ongoing basis. The old adage of ‘it will never happen to me’ unfortunately does happen for many and, for those who have the foresight to protect themselves, save both themselves and their families the additional burden of financial woes. Our youngest claimant over the period was only 26 years of age and the oldest, only 64 years of age. When we looked at average ages, male claimants were 51 years of age whilst women claimants were younger at 45 years.
“Our experienced claims team are there to support our customers when things go wrong and to help them when they need us most. In 2019 we paid out €3,000 per month on average to customers who had income protection policies with us and the average total payment per claimant over a three-year period was €100,000. These are real figures and they reinforce the value of having protection in place,” concluded Richard Jones.