News Flash from Liberty Life

by | 19 Mar 2014 | News

Knowledge is our currency. It’s our wealth. It’s our future.   It’s where we come from and what we stand for.
Liberty 2013 Financial results were the best results in just over a decade,   and these were equally matched by the 2013 Liberty Claim Stats. More than   R2.7 billion in claims was paid out by Liberty in 2013. This tabulates to a   16.3% increase of over R380 million in pay-outs compared to the claims paid   out in 2012; bringing the total claims paid to almost R18 billion over the   last eight years. Put another way, we paid an average of approximately R9   million each working day since we first published claims statistics in 2006.

What does this information mean to Liberty and its customers?

It means   Liberty keeps its promise of paying all claims that are medically and contractually valid.

The largest portion of payments was made for claims relating to life cover – R1.86 billion (68.5%). The remainder was almost evenly split between claims on critical illness type cover (R414 million) and claims on income protection type cover (R439 million).

How do   we use this information to our advantage?

Until knowledge has its sleeves rolled up, until it gets stuck in, until knowledge   becomes action, there is no freedom. There is no progress and there is no   advantage. The information elicited from the 2013 Claim Stats is a critical   tool in planning for customer intervention and check-points. These checkpoints are informed by the statistics breakdown:

  • Of the claims paid by Liberty in 2013, 67.8% were for males and only 32.2% for females.*
  • Cancer remains the largest natural cause of claims at  39.1%, the most common being breast, prostate and skin cancers.* Followed very closely by cardiovascular conditions and strokes and other central nervous system.
  • Cancer and cardiovascular problems were also responsible for approximately 40% of life cover claims.*
  • Unnatural causes account for 41% of claims by clients under the age of 35, compared to between 2% and 11% in older age groups.
  • The volatile labour market and increasing number of retrenchments in South Africa had a material impact on claims made in 2013. 13.4% of claims for loss of income protection insurance paid in     2013 were as a result of retrenchment

* These three groups alone accounted for nearly 90% of all critical illness claims.