Zurich paid out a total of £222 million across life insurance, critical illness and income protection during the first half of 2021.
The figure marks a 75% increase in the number of claims paid over the same period last year.
The insurance giant said more than £167.8 million was paid to life insurance customers in the first six months of this year, representing a 99% pay out rate and over £18.1 million of these were Covid related.
For critical illness, Zurich paid 91% of claims totaling more than £50.7 million, an increase of nearly 20% on the first half of 2020. The main causes were cancer (41%), heart attack (8%), stroke (4%) and MS (3%). Breast cancer accounted for 14% of claims. However, Zurich said policies with an ‘additional payments’ feature, typically benefitting customers with illnesses such as early-stage cancer, have dropped by more than two thirds (69%) over the past year.
Income protection claims also fell 12% year-on-year during the first six months of 2021, with £2.9 million paid out to customers unable to work through illness or injury. The vast majority (99%) of new claims were paid, with a quarter for cancer and musculoskeletal problems and more than one in five (21%) for mental illness.
Across all products, 3% of claims were declined, Zurich said.
Louise Colley, director of Zurich’s retail protection business, said: “While claims are never good news for our customers, we are reassured to see claims coming through particularly from critical illness customers. These products offer our customers the peace of mind and support that they need at such a difficult time in their lives.”
