More than 10 million individual protection policies were in force at the end of 2023, the latest Health & Protection Individual and Business Protection Report has found.
The figures cover 13 major providers in the UK individual protection market and apply to people covered for life insurance, critical illness, income protection or business protection.
However, on a like-for-like basis among insurers who reported for both 2023 and 2022, 10.73 million individual lives were covered by in-force protection policies in 2023, down by 51,000 or 0.5% from 10.78 million a year earlier – the second consecutive fall in these numbers.
And like-for-like new business sales across the market suffered a steeper drop of 128,000 or 10%, falling to 1,177,880 from 1,306,234.
Life insurance and critical illness cover were the product areas to see the greatest falls while income protection and business protection witnessed significant increases.
The full results and analysis can be found in the Health & Protection Individual and Business Protection Report which is available for all advisers, intermediaries and brokers to download for free from this link or by clicking on the front cover below.
