Vitality paid £96m in protection claims in 2022.
Publishing its life claims statistics for the year, the insurer revealed it paid out 96.6% of all protection claims – equating to a total of 2,440 claims paid across its life and terminal illness, serious illness, and income protection products.
Life and Terminal Illness
Vitality paid 99.7% of life claims in 2022, which equated to a total of £60m. Cancer continued as the most common cause for a life claim, followed by heart and artery-related causes and respiratory illnesses. However, Covid dropped down from the fourth leading cause of claim in 2021 to the seventh in 2022.
Over the year 1,029 life and terminal illness claims were approved.
Serious Illness Cover
In 2022, 92.5% of serious illness cover claims were paid, equating to £35.5m. The group said a small number were declined, with the majority not meeting the plan definition, while the remainder were due to non-disclosure or pre-existing conditions preventing a successful claim from being made.
While cancer was the top claims cause in 2022 for both men and women, it had a much bigger impact on women, accounting for almost 70% of claims. While the top three serious illness cover claims were for cancer, heart attacks, and strokes, 32% were for other illnesses including gastrointestinal illnesses, respiratory illnesses, and connective tissue diseases.
A total of 870 serious illness claims were approved in 2022.
Income Protection
Turning to income protection, musculoskeletal claims were the leading cause of claims (34%) followed closely by cancer (29%) and mental health (14%). Together, these accounted for more than 75% of all claims.
A total of 179 income protection claims were paid in 2022 to claimants claiming for the first time within the year and 13 claims were declined in 2022, with 93.2% of new income protection aims approved.
Rewarding active members
Over the year Vitality also continued to reward members, who took steps to improve their health, with discounts, rewards, and lower premiums on their insurance plan.
In 2022, £42m was saved by members who received lower premiums for engaging with their health through Vitality’s Optimiser. On top of this, £60m was returned to members through rewards and led to an average saving for these members of 28% of their annual premium.
In 2022, Vitality members redeemed:
- 60,000 discounted activity trackers
- 69,000 pairs of discounted sports shoes from Runners Need
- 1.6m handcrafted beverages from Caffè Nero
- 744,000 cinema tickets
- 1.2m Healthy Food purchases from Waitrose & Partners
Justin Taurog, managing director of VitalityLife, (pictured) said: “Our shared value insurance products have always had positive customer outcomes at their foundation, and we welcome the introduction of Consumer Duty.
“As well as ensuring our members get value and a framework to get healthier from day one, we’re also dedicated to ensuring we’re there when they need us most.
“The fact we paid out over £96m across life, serious illness cover, and income protection cover in 2022 demonstrates this.
“Furthermore, these numbers highlight how we go further than traditional insurance by paying claims where others wouldn’t and by keeping cover in place following a claim to protect against recurrences and secondary illnesses, even into later life.
“But being there for our members is also about being there every step of the way. It’s about supporting them with the tools needed to make sustainable changes for a healthier, longer life, in order to protect them from foreseeable harm in the future and, ultimately, deliver good client outcomes whether a claim is made or not.”