Aviva increases rate of pay for Critical Illness Insurance

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Leading insurers Aviva have announced that they have revised their policy for Critical Illness insurance, increasing the payment rate for customers being given settlements to up to ninety-three percent over the past six months. The announcement follows similar reports by insurers including LV= over the past couple of weeks, demonstrating that the CI market is showing favourable returns for people who take out cover with the major insurance agents.

The figure announced by Aviva shows an increase in settlements of two percent overall, compared with the same period the preceding year. In addition, the insurers have stated that they succeeded in reducing the number of claims declined to customers as a result of non-disclosure of information, by over one percent.

According to Aviva, the company paid almost seven hundred Critical Illness claims during the first six months of this year, which cost them over fifty million pounds. The average payment to claimants was just under seventy-five thousand pounds per customer.

Their figures demonstrate that cancer is still the most common illness claimed for under Critical Illness insurance policies, accounting for over sixty percent of claims. Aviva also honoured almost one hundred percent of death claims made, costing them a further £87 million following the death of customers, or those diagnosed with a terminal disease.

A spokesperson for Aviva stated: “We are pleased with these figures. We're here to offer our customers peace of mind, and making a claim is the moment of truth. We're constantly reviewing our claims process to make it as easy as possible for customers, especially at such a difficult time and so have introduced a telephone claims service, which accounts for 67% of all claims. This cuts the time to process the claim by a third.”