LV= paid out nearly £12m for coronavirus-related claims in 2021

Protection specialist LV= has said it paid out nearly £12 million for claims directly related to Covid-19 last year.

LV=’s analysis of its records showed 724 life assurance claims in 2021 totalling £11.3 million were related to Covid-19. Life assurance policies pay out when a policyholder dies.

Coronavirus-related payments also included £130,000-worth of personal sick pay payouts, £84,000-worth of critical illness payments and £64,000-worth of income protection payouts.

This made around £11.6 million payments in total related to Covid-19.

LV= said life assurance claims (including terminal illness and 50-plus claims) totalled nearly £74 million, supporting more than 6,600 families and their loved ones.

The main causes for claims were cancer (39%), Covid-19 (16%) and heart-related conditions (15%), the insurer said.

In total, LV= said it paid record individual protection claims totalling more than £119 million during 2021.

It supported more than 9,000 claimants and their families, paying 96% of all individual protection claims including life, critical illness and income protection.

LV= said some claims were not paid for a variety of reasons, including failing to disclose existing medical conditions, misrepresentation and fraud, and not meeting the policy definitions.

Claims for personal sick pay protection, which is designed for self-employed and contract workers, totalled more than £2.7 million. The youngest claimant was aged 19 and the top reasons for claims were musculoskeletal (37%), Covid-19 (21%) and fractures (11%).

Anna Rogers, head of underwriting and claims at LV=, said: “In 2021, Covid continued to dominate our lives and was a key element in our claims experience across multiple products. We do expect to see these claims reduce as we continue to live with the virus and testing decreases.

“Those in the industry know that supporting individuals and their families going through a life-changing event is the reason why we do what we do.

“The LV= wealth and wellbeing monitor revealed that one in four didn’t have protection insurance because they didn’t know enough about it. We still have some way to go to build public trust and demonstrate just how important protection is.”