MetLife is overhauling its Everyday Protect product by increasing the value of its most claimed benefits, cutting less-claimed benefits, increasing the price and widening the occupations covered.
The changes will go live on Monday 1 July and are part of a technology update which the insurer said would mean improved accessibility and operations for advisers and customers.
For new business there is an 11% increase on the price per unit of cover from £9 to £10, but broken bone payments, which accounted for 9,561 claims making-up around 40% of the total, will be increased by 25%.
For major bones this is an increase from £800 to £1,000 and for minor bones it has risen from £200 to £250.
The £50 per 24 hours in hospital payment for accident and sickness, which accounts for more than half of claims, has had the 90-day limit per condition removed with that replaced by an overall £50,000 limit.
This change is also being applied to existing customers as well as for new customers.
However, some of the less-claimed benefit maximums are being cut by 50% with the accidental death cover being reduced from £40,000 to £20,000 per unit while some accidental permanent injuries, such loss of finger and loss of limb will range from £2,500 to £25,000, rather than £2,500 to £50,000.
A further significant change for existing and new policyholders is extending the permitted occupations to include bicycle and motorbike couriers, widening the potential customer market.
‘Where customers are getting most value’
MetLife UK head of individual protection Rich Horner told Health & Protection: “We wanted to review the product, work out where we paid the most claims, that’s where customers are getting the most value from it, and increase the payouts in those specific areas.”
He continued: “That change in pricing allows us to give those extra benefits; for example, accidental death cover accounts for a very small proportion of our claims as does the accidental permanent injuries.
“By changing that slightly, it means the 40% of customers who claim on broken bones or the 54% of our claims that have been on hospitalization, they’ll get more.
Regarding extending the plan to bicycle and motorbike couriers, Horner said: “We haven’t covered them before, when we made the policy years ago, being a motorbike or bicycle courier you wouldn’t have had anywhere near the amount of people doing it that you’ve got today.
“So we’re looking at society today and thinking about the preeminent occupations and that is one where we think we can add value to customers.
“It was actually our adviser partners who said that to us and we’ve taken on board that feedback, this is a demographic who would be crying out for this type of cover because they are at risk of broken bones and hospital stays, and they probably are self-employed or zero hour contracts.
“So it’s just the type of customer that the product’s actually designed for and it’s brilliant to be able to launch that.”
‘No longer than four minutes’
Horner also pledged that advisers would see service maintained with further usability when moving onto the Salesforce platform.
“For the last nine years it’s probably taken four minutes to put one of our customers on risk for an adviser,” he said.
“That will still remain, it won’t take longer than four minutes to put on risk, but they’ll be in a portal where they can access more information on their customers.
“They can see their direct debit status, things like that and can manage their portfolio.”
The new platform should also provide greater accessibility for customers allowing them to submit claims online see the other benefits available through the product.
“The great thing with having the system is that we know we’re going to be able to improve our claims service, so we’ll be able to get people submitting claims online,” he said.
“We expect to pay more in terms of the amounts and hopefully we’re going to get more customers as well.
“Every year our sales have gone up and the claims have followed, which is exactly what we want to see.
“Customers will have a portal where they can go on and easily find their policy documents, where they go to access the GP services and access the helplines.
“More importantly and probably more excitingly for the future, it gives us a platform we can build on,” he added.