Aviva ups CI pay out rate

Aviva has increased its critical illness (CI) claims payment rate to 93% in the first six months of 2010.

The figure is a 2% improvement on the same period last year while it also halved the volume of claims declined through non-disclosure to 1%.

In all, the provider paid out 684 CI claims during the six months to the end of June 2010, totaling over £51m, with an average payment of £74,740.

Cancer remains the most common cause of critical illness claim, accounting for 64% of claims.

It also revealed a 98.5% payment rate for death claims, paying out a further £87 million in life insurance after death or to clients diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Richard Verdin, protection director at Aviva, is pleased with the figures.

"We're here to offer our customers peace of mind, and making a claim is the moment of truth," he says.

"We're constantly reviewing our claims process to make it as easy as possible for customers, especially at such a difficult time and so have introduced a telephone claims service, which accounts for 67% of all claims.

"This cuts the time to process the claim by a third," he adds.