In Group Protection we paid £373,949,994 in claims to 7,273 employees and their dependants in 2022, and to further demonstrate the claims results and support provided last year we'll launch our first Group Protection detailed claims report shortly - so watch this space!
Last year’s Group Protection claims payment is the equivalent of us paying out more than £1million to employees and their families every day across Group Income Protection, Group Critical Illness and Group Life claims.
More than half of claims paid in 2022 were for Group Income Protection (includes new 2022 Group Income Protection claims and those remaining in payment from previous years). In Group Income Protection we also expanded our dedicated specialist claims pathways to support more employees with specific conditions. The number of employees we supported with early intervention and rehabilitation last year increased by more than 50% compared to 2020, with more than four in five (82%) of employees staying in or making a successful return to work.
Together with the recently announced Individual Protection claims figures, across Aviva Protection we paid more than 57,800 claims to customers and their loved ones last year, totalling more than £1.4 billion.
Group Income Protection
For Group Income Protection claims, more than £96.1 million was paid in benefit to just over 4,700 claimants, with an average amount of £20,447 paid per claim.
Cancer was the most common reason for making a claim accounting for over a quarter (27%) of new claims. Mental health conditions made up almost a fifth (18%), with musculoskeletal at 15% and neurological conditions at 10% of new claims. The average age of a first-time claimant was 49 years old.
Our focus on providing early intervention and rehabilitation support to employees, to help them stay in or get back to work, led to further investment in specialist claims pathways last year. Support for employees with neurodiverse, neurological and cardiac conditions joined our established and much-used cancer, Covid-19, mental health, and musculoskeletal claims pathways.
The number of employees receiving rehabilitation support last year increased by 11% compared to 2021, and by 53% compared to 2020. 2,508 employees received support, across 276 UK employers in 2022, with 1,666 new cases beginning support within the year.
For the first time since before the pandemic, we saw a drop in mental health rehabilitation cases, falling 12.5% compared to 2021, whilst long Covid rehabilitation cases dropped 19% compared to 2021.
Importantly, overall, 82% of employees who received support either remained in, or made a successful return to work taking pressure off your clients and their employees.
93% of employees with a mental health condition who returned to work with our support did so within the deferred period - so before a claim began, whilst 92% with a musculoskeletal disorder and 76% with long Covid also had the same positive outcome. 70% of all employees receiving our support for cancer successfully returned to or remained at work.
Group Critical Illness
In 2022 we paid out £35,231,584 in Group Critical Ilness claims on 490 claims, with an average amount of £71,901 paid out.
Some two-thirds (66%) of claims were paid to those aged between 40-59, with the average age being 47. Three claims were paid to children who were diagnosed with a covered condition at birth.
The most common reasons for a claim was cancer (62%), followed by heart attack (9%), stroke (6%) and Multiple Sclerosis (4%.)
For Children’s Critical Illness claims, we paid £311,131 covering 27 children, at an average claim amount of £11,523. Cancer and children’s intensive care benefit were the most common reasons for children’s cover claims.
Our ‘Project Teddy’ initiative brought a smile to the faces of some of the children and their parents, with Aviva’s claims team taking care to support the family and get to know the child and their siblings in order to send appropriate toys and gifts.
Group Life Insurance
We paid 2,081 Group Life Insurance claims last year, totalling £242,576,102 - with an average amount paid out of £116,567.
Again, the most common cause of claim was cancer. This was followed by heart disease, suicide and respiratory conditions. The average age of claim was 54.
Last year we added the much-used Aviva’s DigiCare+ Workplace app to the range of wellbeing services available with Group Life - making the app available across all Group Protection policies. We also added a new partnership with Red Apple Law to help employees with free and discounted legal support.
Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace app
Since its launch in the autumn of 2020 and up until the end of 2022 more than 43,700 UK employees had registered with the Aviva Digicare+ Workplace app, provided by Square Health. This includes more than 16,500 new users who registered in 2022.
More than 9,400 health checks were ordered in 2022 to help employees detect signs of potential health issues. Of those who returned a valid sample, 50% of employees had cholesterol levels outside the normal range, while 31% showed liver markers outside of the normal range.
More than 3,200 Digital GP appointments were booked through the app with 99% of appointments available within 24 hours, while more than 1,800 mental health consultations were booked, all of which were held within 48 hours.
Jason Ellis, Aviva Group Protection Sales Director said:
“The value of having protection cover in place to support employees financially during difficult times is clear from the millions we paid out last year, as is the importance to both your clients and their employees of having prompt access to early intervention rehabilitation support to manage and prevent absence through illness. Increasingly our large corporate and SME clients are equally valuing the ways we go above and beyond to help them support their employees’ mental, physical and financial wellbeing in general. The Aviva Digicare+ Workplace app is fast becoming a highly valued service to help employees manage their physical and mental wellbeing and we hope to engage even more employees this year in the importance of preventing poor wellbeing following the launch of the app to our Group Life insurance customers. We also continue to invest heavily in supporting your clients to manage workplace mental health. Our live mental health training by our in-house expert was delivered to more than 8,000 employees over the course of last year and our webinars for SME customers proved invaluable for small businesses with 3,972 employees attending the sessions. Reflecting our mental health expertise, we are set to build on the success of these in 2023, offering them to both our SME and Large Corporate customers in recognition of their different needs.”
Footnotes
- £1,445,012,399 amount paid across Aviva Protection: £373,949,994 Group Protection. £1,071,062,405 Individual Protection.
- 57,000 claims across Aviva Protection: 57,868 claims: 7,273 Group Protection. 50,595 Individual Protection.
- Group Income Protection rehabilitation statistics:
2020: 1,632 employees supported. 2021: 2,262 employees supported. 2022: 2,508 employees supported
2021: 885 mental health rehabilitation cases. 2022: 774 mental health rehabilitation cases
2021: 216 long Covid rehabilitation cases. 2022: 174 long covid rehabilitation cases - Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace data provided by Square Health.