Vitality paid out £117m in protection claims in 2023.
Publishing its protection claims statistics for the year, the insurer revealed it paid out 94.6% of claims paid across its life insurance, income protection and serious illness cover (SIC) products. This compared to 96.6% in 2022.
Life
Across life cover, Vitality paid out £83.5m in 2023, with 99.7% of claims paid out – the same percentage of claims as the previous year.
Cancer and heart and artery-related causes and respiratory illnesses continued as the most common cause for a life claim.
The oldest claimant was a 92-year-old who died of pneumonia while the youngest was a 21-year-old who died accidentally.
The largest claim was a £3.9m claim for pancreatic infection.
The insurer paid out 959 life claims in 2023.
Serious illness cover
Across serious illness cover, Vitality paid out £32.7m in 2023, with 87.8% of claims paid out. This compared to the previous year with 92.5% of serious illness cover claims paid, equating to £35.5m.
As with 2022, cancer accounted for the top claims cause over the year for both men and women and once again having a much bigger impact on women than men.
The top three serious illness cover claims were once again cancer, stroke and heart attack.
Over the year, 809 SIC claims were paid out, with 31 child SIC claims.
Income protection
Turning to income protection, cancer (31%) proved the leading cause of claim, followed by mental health (19%) and musculoskeletal (14%).
In 2022, the order differed, with musculoskeletal leading (34%), followed by cancer (29%) and mental health (14%).
Optimiser and the Vitality Programme
Vitality’s Claims and Benefits report also highlights that members saved £43m in 2023 through their life insurance with Optimiser, with members initially benefiting from premiums up to 40% lower than standard, which can then be maintained by engaging with the Vitality Programme.
Members with Optimiser on their plan were also three times more likely to engage with the Vitality Programme, and 46% less likely to cancel their plan than people without.
The claims data also showed that members with protection products who are physically active, improve their mortality risk by up to 49%. This was the equivalent to increasing their life expectancy by almost five years.
Vitality also supported over 1,100 Life members who were identified as having a high health risk, with targeted health and wellbeing support and programmes, with 47% of members who attended Vitality’s quit smoking programme giving up smoking and 44% achieving targeted weight loss by participating in a targeted programme.
Justin Taurog, managing director of VitalityLife, (pictured) said: “The launch of today’s claims report highlights the value people are getting from their life insurance product – from being there at their point of claim and when they need us, through to helping them live a longer healthier life by engaging with the Vitality Programme.
“Engagement in the Vitality Programme is ubiquitous across all adults and is driving earlier identification of health issues as well as significant improvements in mortality.
“Our serious illness cover product continues to be unique within the market, paying out based on severity and multiple times.
“Today’s data show why being able to claim earlier and frequently matters, with the positive impact of advancements in modern medicine and screening in survival rates being felt by us all.”