Holloway Friendly has revealed its 2021 income protection claims statistics and that it paid out 94% of new claims last year.

The Gloucester-based mutual, whose founder George Holloway invented income protection in the 19^th Century, confirmed it paid out to a record 766 members during the year – the most in its long history.

Stuart Tragheim, CEO said “The reason we get up and go into work at Holloway Friendly is simple. It’s to be there for our members, and paying claims is the most important part of that – it’s why we exist. We see it as an absolute privilege to have been able to pay out to, and support, 766 of our members and their families. Whilst the statistics are important, what’s more important is each and every person behind the numbers and the difference we’ve been able to make to their lives. I’m extremely proud of our claims team – the care they provide and the lengths they go to, to help people through what can often be extremely difficult times. Whether that’s physically, emotionally or financially.  We’ll share more on the ways we’ve helped some of those people later this year.”

Suzy Esson, Director of Operations, commented “We’ve loved being able to help so many people, especially during what were already really difficult and uncertain times because of the impact of Covid. We want to be in a situation though, where we can pay 100% of claims – but there remain some claims we just can’t pay. During 2021 the main reason for this was where the person claiming hadn’t provided us with essential information when they applied. If we’d known that information, we wouldn’t have been able to insure them for the reason they then later claimed for. Without this we’d have paid over 99% of claims in 2021. Whilst we celebrate the high level of claims we paid, we continue to work with advisers to encourage their customers to provide the full and correct information when they apply so we can get closer to 100%.”

Holloway Friendly’s full claims report is available at bit.ly/Claims2021