Cost of living crisis prompts changed claims expectations – CII

The cost of living crisis is causing consumers to increasingly prioritise the speed at which claims are processed, according to data from the latest Chartered Insurance Institute’s (CII) Public Trust Index, published today (11 October 2022).

Results from the quarterly survey showed that the speed of a claims process jumped from consumers’ seventh highest priority in July 2021 to the third highest priority in July 2022.

The index also revealed that control over the claims process has risen from consumers’ ninth highest priority to their sixth highest priority in the same period.

The CII’s latest Public Trust Index surveyed 999 consumers and 1,498 SME employers involved in insurance buying decisions on their experience of buying, renewing and claiming on insurance products.

Stress and uncertainty

Matthew Connell, director of policy and public affairs at CII, said: “We launched the Public Trust Index to help measure trust in the insurance profession and our findings today reveal the desire for faster claims processes, for example, comes during times of stress and uncertainty.

“The last time consumers felt this strongly was during lockdown in May 2020.”

Connell added that while consumers rated the value of the premiums they were paying as important, they rated the importance of complaints handling and clarity on policy wording as more important.

He added that customers seem to be dissatisfied with the impacts of the FCA’s regulation on price walking.

“With the FCA’s measures on renewal premiums in place for less than a year, the Public Trust Index shows this is an area of greatest dissatisfaction,” he explained.

“It’s likely consumers feel that they should be rewarded for their loyalty, not penalised and put at a financial disadvantage.”

The FCA implemented its general insurance pricing regulations in January 2022, which banned insurers from charging new customers and renewal customers different prices.