Vitality paid out £91.6m in claims in 2020 with a total of 1,632 claims paid across its life and terminal illness, serious illness and income protection products.
Publishing its 2020 claims statistics, the insurer revealed it paid 99.6% of life claims worth £61.9m, 91.3% of serious illness cover claims worth £29.1m, and 96.8% of income protection claims totalling £560,000.
In total Vitality paid 95.9% of all claims.
Covid-related claims
The insurer paid out £4m for Covid related claims across both life and serious illness cover.
Covid related claims accounted for 9% of life cover claims – the fifth largest cause of life cover claims. Older members dominated these but one in four affected were under 60.
In 2020, Vitality also assisted members who were struggling financially to reduce their premiums and cover by either 25%, 50%, or 75% for a period of three months without having to cancel their policy.
Serious illness cover
Over the course of 2020, one in 12 serious illness cover claims made were on conditions not covered anywhere else in the market, Vitality said.
The most common unique conditions claimed for by members in 2020 was pulmonary embolism, followed by (moderately severe) inflammatory bowel disease and surgery for cardiac arrhythmia.
In 2020, one in 11 claims were made to previous claimants, with more than £1.9m paid in secondary claims. Of those claiming for the second time or more, the average time between claims was 18 months.
The top areas for serious illness cover claims were cancer, stroke and nervous system, heart and artery, respiratory, and gastrointestinal.
Justin Skinner, managing director of VitalityLife, said: “Throughout the pandemic we have seen the value of comprehensive cover for members who have had to claim.
“The ability for people to claim multiple times on their serious illness cover policy, has proved particularly valuable with one in 11 claims being made by people who had claimed previously.
“We feel that added peace of mind and being there for people throughout their lives is particularly important, especially since March last year as we all navigate new levels of uncertainty.
“In addition to paying out on claims, we have looked to support our members with new ways to keep active and healthy at home during the pandemic and introduced an option to reduce premiums and cover for those struggling financially. We continue to look to ways that we can best support our members during this time.”
