More than eight out of 10 (83 per cent) Legal & General group income protection claimants returned to work within the deferred period last year, according to the insurer.
This figure includes 92 per cent of employees with GIP mental health claims and 79 per cent with musculoskeletal claims.
Releasing group protection data, L&G said that it paid out almost £350m in claims during 2023, an 8 per cent increase on the year before.
Within this total, L&G paid out £249,381,122 on life assurance claims, £73,678,561 on GIP claims and £26,156,685 on group critical illness policies. It adds that this equates to a £1m payout for every day in 2023.
When it comes to GIP claims, cancer remained the most common reason for making a claim, accounting for over a quarter of all new claims. The average GIP claim paid was £21,843 with the average age of a claimant being 42.
L&G also released figures on the use of its wellbeing and support services. It said it has seen over 150,000 interactions with the range of services available in the last year, with many of these services now included as standard on its group income protection policies.
These interactions include appointments with its virtual GP service, calls to its employee assistance programme, which includes counselling options, as well as interactions with L&G’s digital wellbeing platform which includes a virtual gym, nutritional pathways and shopping discounts.
Legal & General group protection claims & governance director Vanessa Sallows says: “We’re proud to maintain our incredibly strong GIP early intervention and vocational rehabilitation results.
“GIP effectively helps to support employees manage their wellbeing, preventing them from dropping out of the workplace in the first place and, where appropriate, helping them get back on track when they do. It’s for this reason that we report, for the first time this year, on total ‘interactions’ with preventative help and support services; an essential component of our ‘Be Well. Get Better. Be Supported’ framework.
“Our goal is to help people return to – and stay in – good work, because that’s beneficial for whole person health and wellbeing; physical, emotional, financial, and social. Some less obvious – but crucial – aspects of our vocational clinical support that help with this include support to employers on working conditions, including stress risk assessments and reasonable adjustments, to help ensure return to work is sustainable.”
