Legal & General paid a total of £323m in group protection claims in 2020, up more than 5% on 2019.
The insurer revealed its rehabilitation and early intervention services through its group income protection (GIP) policies last year also helped 29.7% of all UK insured employees return to work before their benefit came into payment.
And almost 2,500 sessions were set up for claimants suffering from physical and mental health conditions with its physiotherapy and psychological healthcare partners in 2020.
The number of employees the insurer helped was down last year due to significant falls in primary care consultations and referrals coming through the NHS.
Overall, Legal & General returned 703 employees to work within their deferred period, down 25% on the previous year.
A further 228 employees returned to work after payment of benefit had started with the support of the insurer’s active intervention services, compared to 324 in 2019 – down 29%.
Legal & General also added a long Covid support package to its range of services last year which is activated following an absence of four to six weeks and aims to fill a void in NHS services, which are only accessible from 12 weeks onwards.
For mental health claims 92% were able to return to work within the deferred period, up 9% year-on-year and 93% returned within the first year of absence, up 8%.
For musculoskeletal claims 82% returned to work within the deferred period, up 12%, and 85% within the first year, also up 8%.
Vanessa Sallows, claims and governance director for Legal & General Group Protection, said: “Our active intervention services have helped nearly a third (30%) of the UK’s GIP claimants, so they are able to return to work within the deferred period.
“We are always looking at ways to evolve our service range in line with need. And we were proud to be the first in the market to introduce our long Covid support package to respond to what we were seeing as the pandemic unfolded.”
Sallows also stressed the importance of not medicalising normal stress reactions to adverse events or circumstances; such as anxiety related to the pandemic.
“Such reactions – where the situation could be improved by removing the stressor – do not necessarily constitute GIP claims: every claim is different and assessed individually in the relevant context,” she said.
“However, there’s a strong case for making better use of all the support we have in place to help employees that are not ill. Encouraging employees to make use of these services helps to prevent short term problems from becoming long term.
“GIP has a strong role to play in preventative healthcare and the industry is arguably only scratching the surface at the moment,” she added.