Aviva has paid out more than £677 million across 10,400 Group Protection claims in 2025, up from £559 million across 9,300 claims in 2024.
The data shows that group income protection accounted for around 6,500 claims with more than £146 million paid and an annual payout of £22,464. It also shows that cancer was the most common reason for the claim at 26 per cent then mental health conditions at 18 per cent.
The figures suggest that 2,656 employees across 350 employers received early intervention and rehabilitation support and 85 per cent of them returned to or remained in work.
Elsewhere, group life claims increase to 3,130 from 2,810 with more than £474 million paid.
According to Aviva, around 760 group critical illness claims were paid which is up from 689 in 2024, with total payouts of around £57 million.
Around £1.99 billion was paid across 61,632 individual and group protection claims in 2025.
Aviva managing director of protection Fran Bruce says: “Paying nearly £2 billion in claims to help more than 61,000 customers and their families is a powerful demonstration of the scale and impact of the financial safety net that we provide when customers need it most.
“But as sickness absence rises and demand for wellbeing and rehabilitation services continues to grow, the holistic support we offer is becoming just as critical. Helping people stay healthy, recover well, feel supported and remain financially resilient is fundamental to our approach. That’s why we enhanced our specialist wellbeing services earlier this year and we continue to see strong engagement, particularly with Digital GP.
“Looking ahead, data and technology are reshaping how we assess, understand and respond to customers’ evolving needs. Our industry-first Generative AI medical summarisation tool is helping more customers get protection in place quickly, while our advanced analytics are helping us better understand claims patterns and predict where support may be needed.”