Unum UK has revealed it paid a total of £366m in claims in 2021, up £6.5m on 2020, with £202m of the total being for group income protection (GIP) pay outs.
Cancer was again the most common cause for claims across all of Unum group risk products, accounting for 30% of GIP claims, 36% of life insurance claims and 65% of critical illness (CI) claims.
Unum also saw a decrease in GIP claims for mental health, falling from 18% to 11% in 2021.
This correlated with a 65% increase in mental health pathway queries for pre-claim specialist support, together with a 141% increase in mental health referrals from its wellbeing checks.
Rehabilitation referrals post-claim for patients with cancer had a 98% success rate in helping people return to work in 2021.
This was against a backdrop of an overall success rate of 95% for people returning to work or achieving an agreed outcome after referral to Unum’s rehabilitation team.
The insurer’s Help@hand app which is powered by Square Health saw 15,900 appointments booked throughout the year. Mental health services accounted for 4,700 (29%) of all appointments, 43% of which were for people aged 25–35.
And as dentists reopened following lockdown closures, dental claims rose by 41% to £19m — including payments new for 2021 of up to £50 annually to patients and insured dependents whose dental surgeries charged for additional pandemic-related PPE.
Paula Coffey, director of claims, rehabilitation and medical services at Unum UK, said 2021 was the year of rehabilitation and early intervention with its mental health pathway, wellbeing checks, Help@hand and cancer support services all seeing a significant increase in usage.
“We are particularly proud of our 98% success rate for rehab referrals for patients with cancer,” she said.
“While we’re delighted to have supported so many people reach a successful outcome, we can only do so once we know an employee needs our support.
“These figures show that our pre-claim rehabilitation is both valuable and effective — but delayed notification of an employee experiencing poor health could lead to missing out on the benefits of early intervention.
“In a world where so many of us are moving to hybrid or remote working, the importance of early notification helps give employees support at the earliest opportunity.”