Half of health insurance complaints upheld

Half of private medical and dental insurance complaints received by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) have been upheld in the first quarter of the year.

This follows the trend showing a growing proportion of protection and health insurance complaints being upheld by the ombudsman.

However, across the board, the number of complaints received by the ombudsman is on a slower pace than last year.

In the first three months of the financial year 2010/2011, FOS upheld 49% of the 140 (on pace for 560) health and dental claims it received.

Last year that rate was just 35%, but saw an annual total of 652 complaints submitted.

Whole of life (35% up from 28% in 2009/2010), term assurance (32% from 24%), income protection (IP) (40% from 39%) and critical illness (CI) (35% from 31%) policies also saw an increase in rates of complaints being upheld.

Only business protection insurance has seen a fall to 23% from 26%.

Overall, payment protection insurance (PPI) leads the way, prompting 13,520 complaints in April, May and June.

The full figures, which are no to be produced quarterly instead of annually, can be found on the FOS website.