Aviva paid out a record £1.18bn across individual life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection and other protection policies in 2023.
This insurer said this was the highest annual amount it has paid to date and the fourth consecutive year that claims payments have exceeded £1bn.
More than 50,600 claims were paid and Aviva paid 97.8% of claims.
In addition to individual protection claims, Aviva paid out more than £413m across group protection policies last year, giving a total of £1.59bn paid out across all protection policies in 2023.
The figures have been released ahead of the launch of Aviva’s Individual Protection Claims Report to intermediaries next month, which will be followed by the launch of Aviva’s Group Protection Claims Report.
Life insurance
Aviva paid out more than £761mon individual life insurance and terminal illness benefit last year.
This was 11.4% higher (£78m) than the amount paid out the previous year, despite the number of claims paid, 40,436, being slightly lower than the previous year’s 41,002 claims.
More than £101m of the total was paid out as terminal illness benefit to 729 customers, with an average payment of around £139,000.
Cancer continued as the most common reason for claim at 43% of all claims, more so for women (50%) than men (38%).
Cardiovascular conditions ranked second among most common reasons for claim at 25%, though higher for men (29%) compared to women (18%).
Respiratory conditions ranked third at 8%, having dropped from 14% of all claims the prior year.
In line with previous years, 99.3% of all claims were paid.
Of the 0.7% of claims declined, more than half involved customers misrepresenting relevant information such as their health and lifestyle at the application stage.
Critical illness
Aviva paid out more than £362m to support customers with individual critical illness policies, including children’s benefit and total and permanent disability.
More than half of all claims (58%) were for a cancer diagnosis, rising to 74% of all claims for women.
The second most common reason for claim, heart attack, was more prevalent for men (17% of all male claims) than women (4% of female claims).
Stroke ranked third at 11% of all claims for men and 4% of all claims for women.
The most common cancer claims amongst men was prostate (30%), followed by gastrointestinal (17%) and haematological (14%).
For women, breast cancer was the most common cancer (55%), followed by gastrointestinal (10%) and gynaecological (9%).
The insurer reported £5.9m was paid out as Children’s Benefit to 283 claimants.
The most common reason for a children’s claim is cancer (31%), with haematological cancer being the most common form at 51% of all children’s cancer claims.
And 5,048 claims were paid in total for critical illness including total permanent disability and children’s benefit, with 91.6% of claims paid. A total of 5.8% were declined as the definition had not been met, with a further 2.4% declined for the misrepresentation of relevant information during the application.
Income protection
Over the year Aviva paid more than £53m in monthly benefits to individual income protection policyholders through ongoing and new claims.
Just over 3,900 long term and new claims were paid, with 92.5% of all claims being paid.
While musculoskeletal conditions were the most common reason for claim (27%), mental health closely followed – accounting for 24% of all claims.
The insurer also saw a 53% increase in new mental health rehabilitation cases last year.
The average age when customers first claim on a policy was 42 years, with almost three-fifths of claims (59%) occurring between the ages of 40 and 59.
In addition to the main monthly income benefit, Aviva also paid out just over £6.2m in back to work benefit, £197,000 in hospital benefit and £58,000 in trauma benefit.
Less than eight in every 100 claims were declined last year, the most common reason being that relevant health and lifestyle information was not shared when the policy was taken out.
Jacqueline Kerwood, head of claims strategy and governance for protection at Aviva, said: “With an average of £3.2m paid out every day last year on individual protection claims, we have again shown our consistency and scale in helping customers and their families with crucial financial support when their lives are turned upside down by bereavement or ill health.
“Since 2019 we have paid out more than £5.37bn to UK families on just over 233,000 claims.
“However, the support we give to customers is so much broader than just making payments, with our claims specialists experienced in identifying where additional support would benefit and make a real difference to each customer.
“Hundreds of income protection customers were supported with rehabilitation services last year to help them make a quicker recovery.
“Hundreds of customers also benefitted from our partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, either through cancer nurse specialists helping with their claim or by our signposting to support services, while hundreds more children and families were sent gifts through Project Teddy to help them get through a tough time.
“We’ll be bringing some of these individual stories to life through the launch of the Aviva Individual Protection Claims Report next month and at our planned intermediary live event and webinars.”