Holloway Friendly has revealed its longest ongoing income protection (IP) claim has been in payment for more than 33 years.
The figure was published as part of its annual claims details which showed a record year for the insurer as it paid out to 766 members during the year – the most ever for the mutual.
Overall, it paid out £3.5m in claims during 2021, sightly up on 2020 and approved 94% of all new claims compared to 98% a year earlier. It also had to decline 53 claims, fewer than last year.
The mutual said its approval figure would have been 99% but it had to decline most of those claims after policyholders failed to disclose key health information during underwriting.
Musculoskeletal was the largest single condition accounting for 27% of new claims, followed by Covid-19 (17%), joints and tendon (14%), mental health and surgical procedures (both 7%).
However other conditions not included in these groups accounted for a combined 28% of claims.
The average annual claim amount paid by Holloway Friendly last year was £12,000, with the average length of active claims in payment being 3.25 years.
And the Average age of members making a claim was 42 years old, with the youngest at just 21 and the oldest at 64.
Regarding the longest claim in payment, the mutual said it had been ongoing for 12,254 days – equivalent to 33 years, six months and 17 days, but it could not give any further details for risk of identifying the claimant.
Working with advisers on non-disclosure
Holloway Friendly director of operations Suzy Esson said: “We’ve loved being able to help so many people, especially during what were already really difficult and uncertain times because of the impact of Covid.”
However she emphasised the mutual wanted to be able to pay all claims and said it was working with advisers to help increase awareness of the need for clients to declare all they could.
“During 2021 the main reason for [declined claims] was where the person claiming hadn’t provided us with essential information when they applied,” she continued.
“If we’d known that information, we wouldn’t have been able to insure them for the reason they then later claimed for. Without this we’d have paid over 99% of claims in 2021.
“While we celebrate the high level of claims we paid, we continue to work with advisers to encourage their customers to provide the full and correct information when they apply so we can get closer to 100%.”
CEO Stuart Tragheim noted that paying claims was the most important part of the organisation’s existence.
“While the statistics are important, what’s more important is each and every person behind the numbers and the difference we’ve been able to make to their lives,” he said.
“I’m extremely proud of our claims team – the care they provide and the lengths they go to, to help people through what can often be extremely difficult times, whether that’s physically, emotionally or financially.”