Context
In the face of the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, insurers continued to thwart Insurance cheats. Despite a fall in the overall number of insurance frauds detected in 2020, mainly due to fewer motor insurance claims, both the value of the average fraud and fraud detection rates increased on 2019. This demonstrates how well insurers’ fraud investigation teams adapted to working remotely.
Key points to note
The ABI’s latest detected general insurance fraud figures highlight that in 2020:
- The number of detected fraudulent claims fell to 96,000 (down 10% on 2019). The lowest since 2007. Their value, at £1.1 billion, also fell on the previous year, but at a lower rate of 4%. This resulted in a rise in the value of the average fraud detected to £12,000 (up 6% on 2019).
- Fraud detection rates rose, both by number (up 0.02 percentage points), and by overall value (up 0.47 percentage points). This shows the level of detected fraud measured against all claims made.
- Insurers detected proportionately more motor insurance fraud than in 2019, despite a fall in the overall number of motor insurance claims due to fewer vehicles on the roads during lockdowns. Detected motor frauds fell by 6% to 55,000, while their value fell by only 1% to £602 million. However, detection rates rose – by number up 0.55 percentage points to 2.05%; by value up 1.31 percentage points to 6%.
- The number of property insurance frauds fell by 10% to 24,000, with their value, at £111 million, down 9%.
- With fewer businesses open and people making fewer journeys during the lockdowns, the number of liability insurance frauds, at 14,300, were down 18%, with their value, at £412 million, down 6 %.
- Reflecting much reduced overseas travel, detected travel insurance frauds dipped. There were 770 detected scams, down 49%. However, their value, at £1.8 million, showed a 2% increase. This led to the highest ever recorded average claims value of £2,358. During the pandemic travel claims focused on cancellation and curtailment.
Next actions
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