Yesterday’s general insurance data found that claims acceptance rates for combined building and contents insurance ranged from 75% to 97.5% across the industry.
The Financial Conduct Authority should publish full and partially settled general insurance claims to differentiate between a happy and disgruntled customer.
That was the view of Jason Berry, director of sales at Uinsure.
Yesterday’s general insurance data found that claims acceptance rates for combined building and contents insurance ranged from around 75% to 97.5% across the industry.
But when putting the data together the FCA counted partially accepted claims as accepted claims.
Berry said: “I think it should be differentiated because it’s the difference between a happy and unhappy customer.
“If somebody is claiming for £4,000 but have settled for £2,000 then you’ve still got a disgruntled consumer.
“Part of the reason why partial claims happen is because of underinsurance.
“They have contents cover of £50,000, a loss adjustor visits and believes they should have insured for £100,000 – so they only get 50%.”
When contacted the FCA indicated that it didn’t require firms to split partially and fully accepted claims so the data would be more robust.
However a spokesman stressed that this is a pilot and the regulator is open to feedback on improving the publication of such statistics.
The FCA will publish more GI claims data for the year to 31 August 2017 and will consider publishing data for the year after that.
Malcolm Tarling, chief media relations officer at the Association of British Insurers, was asked whether partial acceptance rates should be collected and published separately.
He said: “That’s one for the FCA to decide but we support greater transparency.
“The vast majority of claims are paid out and insurers are continually looking at ways to increase payout rates.
“These figures do show the vast majority of claims are paid and insurers will continually work to ensure claims have the best possible chance of succeeding.”
Berry reckoned customers who get advice have the best chance of receiving a full payout.
He added: “Giving expert advice gives us the edge over aggregators and customers are able to make a more informed choice.”
