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South African Life Insurers have been going through the claims statistics from the last year and have spotted an alarming trend.

According to Momentum’s 2022 statistics, there’s been a concerning rise in unnatural deaths, notably murder, especially among men.

While cardiovascular diseases remained the leading cause of death claims for Momentum in 2022, the life insurer saw a massive jump in unnatural death claims, which include accidents (mostly motor vehicle-related), as well as murder, suicide and surgery complications.

These worrying stats mostly concern men, who accounted for 82% of Momentum’s claims on such unnatural deaths.

While accidents claimed just over a third of those who received payouts, the biggest jump year-on-year was cases attributable to murder, which surged by 72% from 2021, accounting for 20% of claims. Suicides decreased by 7%, accounting for 19% of claims, per News24:

Momentum’s head of life insurance marketing, George Kolbe, said the insurer received some breathing space during the year as COVID-19-related claims abated, reducing the group’s overall claims by 31% from 2021. But as the virus moved down the ranks, unnatural deaths claims moved up.

While COVID-19 accounted for 12% of Momentum’s death claims in 2022, unnatural death claims increased by 11% year-on-year, representing 11% of all payouts. It was ranked in the fourth spot for causes of death claims.

“But when we go to the male lives, unnatural deaths feature strongly as the third main cause of death claims,” said Kolbe, adding that such deaths are closer to fourth or fifth place when looking at claims involving female clients.

Sanlam, too, reported a rise in unnatural death claims, reporting in June that accidents, poisoning and violence accounted for 12% of claims and ranked third. Motor vehicle accidents are in the lead at about a third of all claims, followed by assault (24%) and suicide (21%).

Mental health issues have also become a huge driver of disability claims:

Mental disorders became the third biggest driver of disability claims for Sanlam (11%). At Momentum, mental health claims jumped from sixth place in 2021 to become the fourth biggest, contributing 11% of lump-sum disability payouts.

The largest income protection claim that the insurer paid out was R6,6 million related to a mental health complication.

[source:news24]