UK Life Assurance Statistics

I came across some interesting statistics about the percentage of families in the UK who have Life Assurance. 6/10 families in the UK do not have a life assurance policy, with 1/5 of these families not having a policy as they think they will not be able to afford it…

Working for a company that provides clients with life assurance, I was quite shocked at the statistics that stared up at me. The research was carried out by Aviva and included:

• 61% of families do not have a life assurance policy in place
• 93% of families do not feel they have adequate financial protection
• 76% of single parent families with two or more children feel financially under protected
• 87% do not have Critical Illness Cover
• 89% shun Income Protection

These statistics show that millions of people are putting the financial future of their families at risk, should they lose their job, fall ill or pass away.

Not even bad experiences can reverse the underprotection trend with 4/10 families admitting to being seriously affected by illness in the past, but still not having any policies in place.

Finally, 5% of people believe policies never pays out and therefore isn't worth buying, when in fact data shows that 99% of life insurance claims are paid out, with an average sum of £51,000 paid off.

I was keen to see other peoples reactions to these statistics, so I asked a large range of people via social media. There was a wide array of reactions, from “Really suprising!” to “I don't know, but I suspect that this is a result of the collapse of the endowment policy.”

Its not the case that families don’t have protection because they have been declined, more that they think they can’t afford it, without even finding out what the premiums may be! This is an interesting look at how society views protection policies…

In my view life assurance can provide families with financial peace of mind in the unfortunate event of a sudden loss of income and can provide a lump sum cash payment should the insured suffer serious illness or disease. If people are pre-judging what they think it will cost them, they are seriously loosing out on financial peace of mind.

By making sure they have financial protection in place, families can have invaluable peace of mind for a more financially secure future…

I’d like to hear your reaction to the above statistics, are you surprised or already aware of the scope of Life Insurance in the UK? All views are welcomed…