Group Risk Development (Grid) has released the first ever full set of collated claims figures from the group risk industry.
The data shows the total amount paid out in group life, critical illness (CI) and income protection (IP) claims over 2009 and 2010.
However, the trade body has not published figures showing the percentage of claims paid and declined, leaving this data to providers.
Grid has previously released the group IP statistics for 2010 (the last year for which data has been collected) which showed that £292m was paid out at an average £21,500 per year to each claimant.
This new data shows that this total rose £10m from £282m with an average of £20,100 in the previous years.
In both years the top four reasons for claiming were the same with near identical ratios of claimants.
Mental health issues were the top cause (24% in 2009 and 25% in 2010), followed by musculoskeletal (19%, 20%), cancer (14% in both years) and circulatory problems (9% in both).
A mixture of ‘other' diseases also accounted for almost a third of claims in each year.
In the group life market, £745m was paid out in claims in both years with 8200 claims.
Here, cancer (42% and 44% respectively), heart (18%, 19%) and respiratory (7%, 8%) conditions were the main causes for claim.
The group CI market saw claims increase by almost half from £19.8m in 2009 to £28.4m in 2010.
And both the number of claims (from 441 to 598) and average value of payment (£44,900 in 2009 to £47,500 in 2010) increased over the two years as well.
This reflects the growth of the market which has flourished in the voluntary paid sector over recent years.
Once again cancer proved to be by far the biggest cause for claim (69% in both years), followed by heart attack (8% in 2009, 10% in 2010).
