LV= offers members emotional and practical support that policyholders can access every day, from day one and without the need to make a claim under their policy
LV= Doctor Services (included as standard on all new protection policies) provides convenient access to six expert medical services - 24/7 Remote GP, Prescription Services, Second Opinion, Remote Physiotherapy, Remote Psychological Support and Discounted Health MOTs - provided by Square Health.
LV= Member Care Line provides members with free and unlimited access to a 24/7 Member Care Line, including health and counselling services. This is operated by qualified professionals who can provide expert support and guidance when it's needed most. This could include advice on their medical condition, coping with the loss of a loved one or coming to terms with their medical diagnosis.
LV= Member Counselling Line provides free day-to-day support for dependants age 16-23, while a Legal Advice Line can provides free and confidential legal advice on a range of personal legal matters such as those relating to employment, consumer contracts, property issues, motoring, landlord and tenant, family and wills and probate.
LV= protection claim payouts hit £119 million in 2021
- Payouts supported 9,000 families
- Covid claims hit almost £12m and accounted for 16% of life insurance claims
Protection specialist LV= paid record individual protection claims totalling over £119 million during 2021. LV= supported more than 9,000 claimants and their families paying 96% of all individual protection claims including life, critical illness and income protection (including claims in payment prior to 2021 that continued to be paid during 2021).
There has also been strong demand for additional support through LV= Doctor Services, which provides access to six expert medical services via app or phone. In 2021, remote GP appointments rose by 13%, with 97% of appointments offered within four hours.
About the claims
Full details are available in the LV= Claims Report 2021.
LV= paid out over £28 million in Critical Illness claims in 2021 to 362 individuals and families. Cancer accounted for 58% of all critical illness claims, followed by heart attack (11%) and stroke (8%), with the highest payment of £449,982. Almost 6 in 10 claims were made following a cancer diagnosis with breast (32%), bowel (12%) and prostate (7%) accounting for most claims. LV= paid a total of £223,250 for claims involving children from newborn to 18 years old.
Life assurance claims (including terminal illness and 50+ claims) totalled almost £74m***, supporting 6,677 families and their loved ones. The top causes for claims were cancer (39%), Covid-19 (16%) and heart-related conditions (15%).
LV= paid £13.6 million in Income Protection (IP)* claims to nearly 1,000 individuals and families. Musculoskeletal issues (20%), fractures (20%) and cancer (17%), representing nearly 58% of all income protection claims. Some 63% of claimants were male.
Claims for Personal Sick Pay** protection, which is designed for self-employed and contract workers, totalled over £ 2.7m with payments made to 1,122 individuals. The youngest claimant was 19 and the top reasons for claims were musculoskeletal (37%), Covid-19 (21%) and fractures (11%).
Covid-related claims in 2021 totalled almost £12m, paid to over 900 individuals and families. Some 724 life assurance claims totalling £11.3m in 2021 were for Covid-19, and Covid also accounted for 209 income claims in 2021 for Personal Sick Pay and Income Protection.
Claims we were unable to pay
In total, LV= paid 96% of new and ongoing protection claims in 2021. The remainder were not paid for a variety of reasons including failing to disclose existing medical conditions, misrepresentation and fraud, and not meeting the policy definitions. LV= provides a breakdown of these claims by product category and reasons in its latest claims report.
In 2021, Covid continued to dominate our lives and was a key element in our claims experience across multiple products. We do expect to see these claims reduce as we continue to live with the virus and testing decreases.
Those in the industry know that supporting individuals and their families going through a life-changing event is the reason why we do what we do. The LV= Wealth and Wellbeing Monitor revealed that one in four didn’t have protection insurance because they didn’t know enough about it. We still have some way to go to build public trust and demonstrate just how important protection is.”
About LV= support services
Notes to editors
Claims – LV= major protection products – 2021
|
Protection 2021 |
Critical illness |
Income protection |
Personal Sick Pay |
Life*** |
|
Total value paid |
£28.2m |
£13.6m (Includes £2m of new claims and £11.5m million of claims already in payment) |
£2.7m (includes 1.7 million of new claims, and £0.9 million of claims already in payment) |
£74m |
|
Average claim |
£77,944 |
£6,621 (average amount paid in total) |
£1,869 (average amount paid in total) |
£54,800 |
|
Highest claim |
£499,982 |
£70,835 |
£16,935 (total paid over claim) |
£1.3m |
|
Average Policy duration at claim |
8 years 6 months |
7yrs 5months |
3 years 10 months |
8 years 11 months |
About the claims stats
* Income protection figures include new claims of £2m, and claims already in payment that continued to be paid in 2021 of £11.5m
** Personal sick pay figures include new claims of 1.7 million, and claims already in payment that continued to be paid in 2021 of £0.9 million
*** Life Insurance figures include claims paid for Life Insurance, Terminal illness and Whole of Life products (including some non-underwritten guaranteed whole of life products). LV= whole of life products are no longer available.