Scottish Widows is the latest provider to publish its declined critical illness (CI) claims statisti...
Scottish Widows is the latest provider to publish its declined critical illness (CI) claims statistics.
The Edinburgh-based insurer revealed that it has turned down 18% of its CI claims in the past 12 months.
Some 64 of the 157 claims turned down were declined due to non-disclosure.
A further 91 claims were turned down because they did not meet the policy definitions.
To ensure all its declined claims have been thoroughly examined, Scottish Widows has formed a claims panel that is set to review all provisionally declined borderline claims.
The panel will review cases before a final decision is reached.
The firm denied the process would add to the time it takes policyholders to receive their payouts and said the panel would only consider claims that would otherwise have been declined.
Of the claims paid out, cancer was the most common, accounting for 63% of Scottish Widows CI payouts.
After cancer, the most common causes of claims were heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis and children's cover.
The top five causes of claims accounted for 95% of the 2,929 CI policies Scottish Widows paid out on between January 2000 and October 2005.
