FY2019-2020 significantly challenging for Aussie general insurers

Almost 33,000 code violations were reported.

General insurers in Australia faced significant operational pitfalls during the fiscal year 2019-2020, according to the General Insurance Code Governance Committee (GICGC), with almost 33,000 code violations being reported to the committee during that year.

The committee report included sector analysis of trends and service standards during that year, which saw significant summer bushfires, flooding and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Code subscribers reported 32,870 breaches committee, a 5% increase from reports filed in 2018 to 2019. Of these breaches, there were 16,730 breaches of Section 7 on Claims, 8,244 breaches of Section 10 on Complaints and Disputes, 3,973 breaches of Section 4 on Buying Insurance, and 3,555 breaches of Section 14 on Access to Information.

These four sections made up 99% of the breaches reported.

In addition,code subscribers also provided the GICGC an overview of their operations: 43.8 million policies were sold, of which motor vehicle policies (37%) and home policies (26%) made up two-thirds. Almost five million claims were lodged, in which 231,480 were declined and 366,581 were withdrawn.

Close to 42,000 complaints were received about services or products, an increase of 20% from the previous year. Most complaints were in relation to motor policies (38%) and home policies (32%).