Mental health GIP claims see six year rise

Mental health claims are growing and now make up a third of all those received on group income protection (GIP) policies, according to Legal & General.

Analysis by the provider of its GIP claims found a third (31%) of all those made since 2000 were for mental health issues.

This was punctuated by a notable rise over the last six years, with mental health prompting 31% of claims in 2011, up from 25% in 2005.

The insurer also found that those in the finance and insurance sector were most likely to make a mental health related claim.

Here almost half (44%) of GIP notifications were for mental health related issues, 13% higher than the average and 27% higher than the lowest sector (mining, oil and gas extraction, 17%).

Diane Buckley, managing director of Legal & General group income protection, said: "Our mental health claim figures, which have increased by 6% in the last six years, show how important it is for employers to help their staff with mental health issues- particularly in the finance and insurance industry where 44% of claims are because of them.

"Keeping our claims transparent will aid our efforts to get individuals back into work.

"In the coming months we will publish analyses which examine notifications for arthritis; back problems; cardiovascular; chronic fatigue syndrome; digestive; musculoskeletal; nervous system; respiratory and cancer," she added.