Complaints about protection insurance products have fallen by more than a fifth, but PMI product complaints have risen, according to data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Health & Protection’s analysis of the data shows there were 27,911 complaints about protection insurance products in the first half of the year – down 21% from 35,383 in the second half of last year.
But the data also showed there was an increase of 10% in complaints about health insurance products over the same period – up by 7,040 to 76,789 complaints in H1 2022 from 69,749 in H2 2021.
This meant that protection insurance bucked the trend across the insurance sector – as the FCA recorded 801,430 complaints about insurance and pure protection in the second half of 2022, up 4% from 771,543 in the second half of 2021.
In the individual protection product areas, there were 23,689 complaints submitted regarding whole of life, term assurance and critical illness in the first half of the year – down slightly from 24,014 in H2 2021.
Complaints about income protection and other accident, sickness and unemployment were up from 3,216 in H2 2021 to 3,382 complaints in H1 2022.
However the vast majority of the drop was attributed to complaints about other pure protection products, which fell to 840 in H1 2022 from 8,153 in H2 2021.
The protection and health insurance sectors remain among the least complained about within the financial services industry.
Overall the FCA said financial services firms received 1.88 million complaints in the first six months of the year, an increase of 1% on 2021 H2.
Current accounts remained the most complained about products. However, the number stayed relatively constant, 526,609 in 2021 H2 to 528,812 in 2022 H1.
Noticeable increases were also seen in general insurance packaged multi products with grievances rising 214% from 9,083 to 23,793; travel insurance complaints up 46% from 16,178 to 22,542, and motor and transport complaints up 12% from 218,048 to 238,887.