More news about critical illness claims

A serious illness, such as cancer or heart attack, affects one-in-four women and one-in-five men before retirement age. Yet few people have critical illness insurance, which is designed to ease financial pressures by paying a tax-free lump sum should you become seriously ill or totally disabled.

It’s been recently revealed that Scottish Provident paid 93% of all critical illness claims it received in 2012, up from 91 per cent the year before. The insurer received a total of 1,060 claims in 2012, compared to 1,091 in 2011. Of the 7% which were not paid (a total of 82), 64 were as a result of not meeting the insurer’s conditions and 18 were as a result of non-disclosure.

In total, Scottish Provident paid out £94.3m in Critical Illness claims, compared with £90m the year before. In 2012, the average payout was £88,975, up from £82,000 in 2011, with the largest claims being £1m and £945,000, respectively.

The average age of claimants in 2012 was 48 while the average amount of time a policy had been in force before a claim was made was nine years and four months in 2012.

Around 60 per cent of claims paid were as a result of cancer, followed by heart attack, stroke and multiple sclerosis.