Critical illness (CI) and income protection (IP) complaints made up just 2.5% of disputes brought to...
Critical illness (CI) and income protection (IP) complaints made up just 2.5% of disputes brought to the attention of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) last year, despite complaints for the products increasing by 8%.
According to the report from the ombudsman, 638 complaints were made about CI policies in 2008, up from 586. For IP, the number of complaints climbed from 774 to 832 in a year. Overall, the number of complaints made to the FOS in 2008 fell 3.5% on 2007.
The report stated: "The introduction in January 2008 of the Association of British Insurers' (ABI) guidance on non-disclosure in claims relating to long-term protection policies upgraded to the status of a code of practice from January 2009 has had a beneficial effect for policyholders. It has also brought the sector clearly in line with the approach that we have been adopting for some time. This has resulted in fewer cases about the non-disclosure of a consumer's medical history now being referred to us."
Nick Starling, director of general insurance and health at the ABI, said that the findings were 'good news' for consumers. He added: "It means people can be confident that when they buy a critical illness policy, they know it will pay out if it is needed."
Bernie Hickman, managing director of protection, who chaired the ABI's committee, said: "Our claims history and that of others demonstrates that the measures taken to reduce declined critical illness claims are working."
He added that L&G has paid out half a billion Pounds in CI claims to policyholders within the last half a decade.
