Over this six-month period, TAL has paid out $2.3 billion across 36,200 customers and their families, of which nearly eight in 10 (28,450) were living in claim benefits, up from approximately 24,340 customers in the previous corresponding period.
According to TAL’s claims statistics, this increase has been largely driven by income protection (IP) and total and permanent disability (TPD) claims related to mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, which made up 29 per cent of all claims for the six months to 30 September 2024, compared with 23 per cent in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, injuries and fractures were the second leading cause for claims (18 per cent), followed by musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases (16 per cent), and cancer (15 per cent).
Although risk insurers such as TAL are largely thought of through the lens of life insurance, TAL chief claims officer Georgina Croft said the findings highlighted the crucial role of insurers beyond death benefits.
“Life insurance offers more than financial support when a loved one passes away. In the past six months, TAL benefit payments provided an important safety net to more than 28,000 Australians unable to work due to injury or illness,” Croft said.
“Helping Australians during their toughest times with care and compassion is the most important thing we do. Beyond a claim payment, we want to help – for customers claiming IP or TPD this is about assisting them on their recovery journey. We do this by providing the financial, emotional and physical support they need to get back to health and on with life.”
The KPMG report, Australia’s Mental Health Check Up, commissioned by the Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI), has shown that this trend is extending across the insurance industry, with the number of insured Australians who are permanently disabled due to a mental health condition doubling over the last 10 years.
Released earlier this month, the report findings revealed that as of 2022, permanent disability due to a mental health condition is occurring at the average age of 46.5 years old, compared with 48.8 years old in 2013.
However, the 30 to 40 age group has experienced the biggest increase in mental health claims. For example, this age group has seen a 31.4 per cent increase in temporary disability claims, meanwhile there has been a 9 per cent annual increase in permanent mental health disability claim rate over the past 10 years.
As such, TAL provides its customers with access to Mental Health Assist, providing customers with virtual access to a psychiatric assessment within 10 days.
The insurers said that by utilising this offering, last year many customers were able to receive a change in diagnosis (70 per cent), medication (68 per cent), therapy (64 per cent), and return to full or part-time work (16 per cent).
TAL claims recovery and support specialist Kate Tran said the insurer is supporting its customers, “whether that’s [by] to improve their functional capacity so they can better engage in everyday activities and with those important in their life or return to work”.
“By connecting a person with the services they need early in the claims process – and removing the financial burden of paying for them – we can help customers on a path to recovery faster,” Tran said.
