The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)has reported a surge in complaints across the health and protection insurance sectors over the first six months of the financial year.
Most notably, the FCA received 8,527 more medical and health insurance complaints in the first half of 2023 than in the corresponding period of 2022.
The regulator’s data also indicated increases in complaints across life and critical illness products as well as income protection.
Looking at private medical insurance, the regulator revealed the number of complaints was up 11% year-on-year. It received 85,316 complaints in H1 2023, up from 79,351 in H2 2022 and 76,789 in H1 2022.
Turning to whole of life, term assurance and critical illness products, the data indicated an 8.7% increase in complaints year-on-year, with 27,073 complaints in H1 2023, up from 24,908 in H2 2022 and 23,689 in H1 2022.
Moving on to income protection, the FCA data showed a 16.6% rise in complaints on the same period of last year, with 3,724 recorded, up from 3,192 in H2 2022 and 3,393 in the first half of last year.
Finally in the ‘other pure protection’ product category, there was an 11.2% rise in complaints year-on-year -up to 8,549 complaints in H1 2023, from 7,685 in H2 2022 and just 840 in H1 2022.