Complaints on policy servicing, settlement of survival and death claims go up: IRDAI

Complaints related to policy servicing and grievances on settlement of claims on survival and death claims have gone up substantially in the financial year 2019-20, shows the latest IRDAI data

While the complaints related to policy servicing has increased by 11%, grievances on settlement of survival claims and death claims went up by 18% and 21% in life insurance respectively in FY 2019-20.

IRDAI data shows that complaints related to policy servicing complaints like change in nominees, address, bank details, surrender and so on have increased to 50,902 in 2019-20 from 45,833 in 2018-19 and 39,573 in 2017-18.

Similarly, complaints related to survival and death claims have grown to 28,586 and 4335 in FY 2019-20, respectively.

Experts said that with the increase in number of policies sold over the years, the number of complaints has also gone up. The life insurance industry has sold close to 7 crore policies in the last three years.

Another key reason for increase in complaints is it with the process of lodging complaints becoming completely digital, it is now become very  easy to lodge complaints.

Manoj Kumar Jain, MD, Shriram Life Insurance feels that industry can reduce complaint numbers by building a strong customer service portal to address their issues and concerns related to policy servicing and claims.