Aegon UK paid out 37 per cent more for critical illness claims in 2013 than it did the year before, with payouts reaching a total of £33.2m last year.
The insurer paid a total of £54.9m for life cover claims, a 25 per cent increase year-on-year.
It also paid out a higher percentage of critical illness claims, increasing 2 per cent compared to 2012 to 93.2 per cent for 2013.
Declined claims were mostly due to definitions not being met, and the rest to misrepresentation.
How much it paid for life claims increased but the percentage of claims paid out dropped slightly from 94.1 per cent to 94 per cent.
In contrast to the critical illness declines, 93 per cent of life declines were due to misrepresentation and 7 per cent were due to definitions not being met.
Dougy Grant, protection director at Aegon, said: “The research we carried out last year highlighted one of the key barriers to people buying protection was their lack of trust in providers to pay claims.
“We continue to work closely with advisers and their clients to minimise the occurrences of misrepresentation and continue to streamline the process of paying claims through our tele-claims services which was launched in 2009.”
