Last week, both Liberty and Momentum released their Claim Statistics for 2018. In 2018 Liberty paid claims to the value of R4.69 billion to 28,453 individuals and their beneficiaries. Momentum also paid out claims of just more than R4bn and disclosed that only 0.19% of the claims it received were rejected because of non-disclosure.
Momentum was in the news in 2018 when it rejected a claim, from the widow of one of their clients that was shot, because he failed to disclose that he had high glucose levels or that he even tested for glucose regularly. However, the insurer later reversed its initial decision and paid the claim.
At the release of their results, Liberty also mentioned consumers were coming to review what information they gave the insurer out of fear they might not have disclosed enough. However, the insurer’s lead actuarial specialist Ursula Torr said the issues of non-disclosure might have counted against insurers. She mentioned that all insurers have their alert senses on now to think about the human factor when processing claims.
Liberty further shared that retrenchments accounted for the biggest share of monthly income claims paid out by Liberty in the 2018 financial year. The group paid R20.5m, which is 38.3% of all monthly income claims it received in 2018, to 1,102 retrenchment victims.
Momentum added the alarming fact that a number of young women are being diagnosed with cancer. Among under-40s, twice as many women as men are being diagnosed with cancer, was revealed. The insurer’s unnatural death claims stats reveal that 45% died in car accidents, 24% were suicides (and of those, 93% were men), 15% were murders and 7% were as a result of surgery.
To read more about both Momentum and Liberty’s Claim Statistics for 2018 click on the web links of various media sites below.
TimesLive: Cancer rising in SA’s young women, insurer’s data shows
Moneymarketing: Liberty Claim Statistics 2018 – A shift from death to survival insurance
BusinessLive: Retrenchment income claims stand-out item in Liberty’s statistics
Fin24: Momentum pays out millions to families of murdered policy holders.
