UK insurers’ Covid-19 BI payments near £1bn
Hiscox continues to drag its feet
UK business interruption (BI) policyholders with accepted Covid-19 claims related to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) test case ruling have received almost £1bn from their insurers since the Supreme Court judgment in January this year.
According to latest data submitted to the FCA by 5 August, insurers have paid out in full to more than half of BI policyholders with accepted Covid-19 losses.
There have been 21,198 settled claims from the 41,666 total accepted. A further 6,000 policyholder claims are pending a decision, 41% of which are with Hiscox.
Policyholders with settled claims have received £636.8m to 5 August. A further £331.3m has been paid as interim settlements, taking the total paid by UK insurers for Covid-19 BI losses to £968m, from £875.5m in July.
The average payment on a claim settled in full remains at about £30,000.
Hiscox, which has the largest number of BI claims, has settled with only 22% of its BI policyholders that have accepted non-damage claims for Covid-19 losses. Of the 9,180 claims Hiscox has accepted, full payments have been received by 2,048 policyholders, with a further 1,897 receiving initial or interim payments.
Hiscox has yet to make decisions on 2,478 claims in its in-tray. Aviva has the second-highest number of pending claims at 593, followed by The New India Assurance Company at 497.
Axis Managing Agency has the second-highest number of accepted claims behind Hiscox at 3,297, although it has settled in full with 80%, or 2,654 policyholders.
