Musculoskeletal conditions – and in particular back-related problems – are consistently the highest causes of IP claim, and this is not just limited to those in more manual occupations.
The risks associated with people spending more time in sedentary positions (often hunched in front of a screen) mean that back-related injuries are just as likely to apply for someone in an office job as they are for someone doing manual work.
Mental health is highly topical and the industry is seeing a rise in the number and value of mental health-related claims.
At LV mental health claims are increasing in older, male, higher earning professionals.
In 2018, mental health was the highest value cause of LV IP claims, amounting to nearly £5m for new and existing claimants.
For blue collar IP claims, musculoskeletal and accidents are the most common causes of claim, reflecting the more manual nature of the occupations of the clients covered.
With a heavier self-employed, manual occupation mix (with no statutory sick pay to fall back on), the likelihood and need to claim for such conditions may be higher.
For policies with waiting periods of one week or under, viral infections also feature highly – tending to lead to short-term claims lasting just a few weeks.
Additional support and benefits from IP, without a full claim
The core benefit of insurance is a financial one – the amount of cover.
Yet IP is evolving and is increasingly more of a ‘service’.
Not only does IP offer financial support, it can also offer a more holistic means to help people recover and get their lives back on track.
We are also seeing cover stretching beyond the person insured to include the wider family – mainly for children, but also older dependants.
Not all of these additional benefits and services are included in the terms and conditions of the IP contract and so are not reported in traditional claims stats.
Yet they offer meaningful practical support and value to clients and their families, and we find that they are often valued higher than the insurance benefit itself.
Excellent examples of rehabilitation support, additional treatment and back-to-work services were highlighted in the real stories of the 7Families initiative.
It is now the norm for insurers to employ their own team and/or partner, with specialists such as RedArc, Best Doctors and Innovate to provide individual focused all-round support.
When advising potential IP clients it is now really important to consider the availability of ancillary bolt-on benefits. These can include fracture cover, hospitalisation benefit and death benefit, and many of them are available without having to make a full claim on the IP policy.
