A campaign to raise consumer awareness of protection payouts has revealed a mismatch between public perception and reality.
The results from the Drewberry survey show the public’s expectations of payout rates are still well below the actual level being paid out by UK insurers but better than previous surveys have suggested.
Of the 2,039 consumers that submitted an answer the average respondent thought insurers only paid out 72 per cent of claims (across life insurance, income protection and critical illness cover).
The actual payout rate reported by the Association of British Insurers was 97.2 per cent in 2015.
Drewberry’s one question survey on their website asked consumers to enter what percentage of protection claims they believed were paid out in 2015, with those submitting an answer being entered into a random prize draw to win £500.
Through the promotion of the survey on a number of financial and family related websites and blogs, more than 2,000 consumers submitted an answer.
Tom Conner, director of Drewberry, said: “The results of this campaign highlight that consumers still believe that insurers payout far less than they actually do, and the results of our 2016 survey show that very few consumers believe that payout rates are improving, which we know to be the opposite of the truth.
“This shows that as an industry we need to get far better at advertising the payout success story that has developed over the last 10 years.
“This story is currently only known by those within the industry and not those who actually buy, or consider buying, our products.
“If the market is to grow the public’s perception of our industry needs to change and raising awareness of consistently high payout rates should form the bedrock of that.”
