Aviva pays 95% of CI claims

Aviva paid almost 95% of critical illness (CI) claims and 99.6% of those resulting from death last year.

In total it paid 1,534 CI claims worth more than £136m at an average of £89,000 (up from £79,000 in 2009).

The proportion of CI claims paid (94.7%) is its highest to date and up 4% from the previous year.

Non-disclosure accounted for 1.6% of total claims declined, compared to 2% in 2009, with 3.7% rejected for not meeting the conditions, down from 6%.

Cancer remains the most common cause of claims at 68%, followed by heart attack (9%), stroke (7%) and multiple sclerosis (6%).

In addition to CI claims, the company also paid out a further £272 million in life insurance.

The provider also paid out 75 child critical illness claims for a total of £770,000.

Richard Verdin, protection director at Aviva, was very pleased with the results.

"The figures clearly show the value in having protection in place, and we have made great strides in our critical illness payment record in recent years," he said.

"As we've seen previously, the most common six conditions account for more than 94% of critical illness claims.

"This has been constant for the last five years across the industry, so we are confident that we are offering the right level of cover and affordability to benefit our customers," he added.