Zurich UK has revealed that it paid over £1bn of claims in the first half of this year, with general insurance claims accounting for 70% of the disbursements.
About 30% of the total figure was paid from the Life business.
In general insurance, where Zurich has paid significant majority of all claims, payments of over £1m each were issued for 17 cases.
According to the insurance giant, a small number of claims had to be declined either with the customer’s condition not meeting the policy criteria or by the failure to disclose medical information.
Zurich UK CEO Gary Shaughnessy said: "There will always be some claims which aren’t paid for a number of reasons, but these figures suggest we can do more to help people understand what is and is not covered by their policies so we don’t have to turn people down.”
Personal lines home cover saw the lowest proportion of claims paid with a little over 91% claims getting cleared.
Zurich UK’s life business unit on the other hand released payments to 95% of all claims. Both personal lines motor and commercial lines had paid out 99% each of their respective total claims.
Shaughnessy also said: “We are continuing to invest in our claims processes across Life and General Insurance to ensure we can help people as swiftly as possible, and also to ensure that our fight against insurance fraud remains robust."
The company said that by publishing the numbers, it wanted to clear the common misconception of insurers shying away when it comes to paying claims besides showing that most of them are paid.
Image: Zurich UK CEO Gary Shaughnessy. Photo: courtesy of Zurich.