7% Of Income Protection Claims In 2018 Were Related To Mental Health

Holloway Friendly has published claims data which reveals that 1 in 14 of the income protection claims made by its members in 2018 were related to work absences as a result of mental health issues.

The team at www.Holloway.co.uk analysed claims data, to uncover the top reasons why their members were making a claim on their income protection plans, as well as how much the Society’s average annual payment is and the average length of a claim.

By looking at the most common reasons for claims made by members in 2018, the data suggested the tops reasons for claims were: Accident Injury – 27%, Musculoskeletal 24% and Mental health -7%. This information will help the Society to better understand claims trends.

Taking all claims made into account, the average length of a claim was found to be a 1 year and 4 month absence, with the longest claim in the history of Holloway Friendly found to be 20 years and 6 months.

The data also revealed that £10,800 was the average annual claims payment and that the average age of those claiming for income protection was 44 years old.

The team wanted to look into this data to see whether stress and mental illness had caused a great deal of prolonged absences this year, especially as mental health conversations continue to be incredibly important in highlighting the seriousness of these ailments.

Georgia d’Esterre, Head of Marketing at Holloway Friendly, commented on the claims data from this year:

“It’s worrying that so many of our claims were due to mental health issues. With the rise of social media, people comparing their lives to others and Britons working themselves to the absolute limit, it’s a sad reality that stress and mental illness will likely continue to be one of the top reasons that people make claims.”