Aviva paid 1,534 critical illness claims worth more than £136 million to customers during 2010.
Aviva paid 1,534 critical illness (CI) claims worth more than £136 million to customers during 2010. The average payment was more than £89,000, an increase of £10,000 compared to 2009 (£79,000).
In addition to CI claims, the company also paid out a further £272 million in life insurance to the families of loved ones who have died. This amounts to more than £400 million paid to customers and their families through Aviva’s life insurance and critical illness policies in 2010.
The proportion of CI claims paid is Aviva’s highest to date and the largest monetary value. This is as a result of the company’s commitment to paying claims and driving down non-disclosure through education of customers and advisers about exactly what is covered by its critical illness policy.
Key statistics for 2010 include:
- Aviva paid 94.7% of all critical illness claims, an increase of almost 4% since 2009.
- Total payments for critical illness policies were more than £136 million, compared to almost £118 million in 2009.
- Aviva paid out 99.6% of claims resulting from death, totalling £272 million, compared to £151 million in 2009.
- In total 1,534 critical illness claims were paid during 2010.
- Critical illness claims declined for non-disclosure of medical facts at the policy’s outset accounted for 1.6% of total claims, compared to 2% in 2009.
- Critical illness claims declined for conditions not met fell to 3.7%, down from 6% in 2009.
- Cancer remains the most common cause of critical illness claims at 68%, followed by heart attack (9%), stroke (7%) and multiple sclerosis (6%).
- In 2010 Aviva was awarded a gold rating from Munich Re (as part of an industry wide benchmarking exercise), in six out of seven assessment categories in recognition for the market leading service provided by its protection claims team.
Richard Verdin, protection director at Aviva, said: “As we’ve seen previously, the most common six conditions account for more than 94%* of critical illness claims. This has been constant for the last five years across the industry, so we are confident that we are offering the right level of cover and affordability to benefit our customers.
“As our recent marketing campaign has demonstrated, we are absolutely dedicated to ensuring families are adequately protected. Our latest CI figures clearly show the value in having protection in place, and we are proud to have been able to make a difference to these customers at such a difficult time.
“We have made great strides in our critical illness payment record in recent years and we are very pleased that our latest figures reflect our commitment to our customers. By ensuring financial support is in place, we can give people the peace of mind to concentrate on more important things at a time of great need.”
Additional information:
- All customers with an Aviva critical illness policy benefit from up to £20,000 of children's critical illness cover for their children. In 2010 Aviva paid out 75 child critical illness claims.
- During 2010 Aviva paid out a total of more than £400 million (up from £300 million in 2009) to people claiming through life insurance and critical illness cover. This includes:
- Critical illness claims: £136,604,965
- Child critical illness claims: £770,000
- Life insurance claims (death): £271,901,094
- The number of claims declined because the condition claimed for was not covered by the policy decreased to 3.7% in 2009, from 6% in 2009.
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If you are a journalist who requires further information, please contact:
Sarah Poulter: Aviva Press Office
01904 452828 / 07800 691596
sarah.poulter@aviva.co.uk
Notes to editors:
* Over the last five years the same top six conditions have accounted for 94.3% of Aviva’s critical illness claims paid overall. According to RGA, the same six conditions account for more than 90% of CI claims paid across the industry. The conditions are: cancer; heart attack; multiple sclerosis; stroke; benign brain tumour and heart valve replacement.
About Aviva:
Aviva is one of the world's largest insurance groups* with 53 million customers worldwide and 46,000 employees.
Aviva’s main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £45.1 billion and funds under management of £379 billion*.
In the UK, Aviva takes care of its 19.2 million customers by helping them look after their future, protecting what’s important – from their health to their homes, their cars to their business – and saving for the future.
Aviva has a 10.5%** share of the UK life and pensions market and insures one in six homes and one in 10 cars in the UK. It is also one of the oldest UK insurers, with a heritage stretching back more than 300 years.
RAC, which is owned by Aviva, provides breakdown and insurance services for individuals and businesses and has around seven million customers.
Aviva is carbon neutral worldwide, and is ranked in the top 10% of socially responsible companies globally by the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. In the UK, Aviva invested £3.8 million into local communities in 2009. Read our corporate responsibility report at www.aviva.com/cr.
Aviva’s global Street to School programme is working in partnership with Railway Children in the UK to get children living on the streets back into education and everyday life. Find out more at www.aviva.co.uk/street-to-school.
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* based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2009
** Source: ABI data released August 2010