South Africa’s largest life insurers received 22 544 death claims against fully underwritten life policies in the 19 months between the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March last year and the end of September 2021. While not all the claims were for policyholders who died as a result of Covid-19, five of South Africa’s
Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
South Africa’s largest life insurers have reported increases of 50% to 60% in death claims against fully underwritten individual life policies between March last year, when the first Covid-19 case was recorded in South Africa, and the end of January 2021.
Although life insurers anticipated that death claims would increase in line with the national death rate during the second wave, insured lives lost exceeded the expected death rate by four times at the peak of the second wave in January 2021.
In comparison, the country as a whole saw an increase in reported deaths of 2.8 times the expected death rate.
Four of South Africa’s largest life insurers reported increases of between 50% and 60% in death claims against fully underwritten individual life policies between March last year and the end of January this year, with claims for January four times those recorded in January 2020, before the pandemic hit.
Insured lives lost during Covid 2nd wave four times higher than expected - study
1 June 2021 8:30 PM Assa
Share This: The data from the Actuarial Society of SA is another indicator that the death toll from Covid-19 could be higher than officially reported.
There was a fourfold increase in death claims against fully underwritten life policies during the Covid-19 second wave.
That s revealed in a study carried out by a committee of the Actuarial Society of SA (Assa).
Life insurers had anticipated death claims to increase in line with the national death rate during the
second wave.
However the number of insured lives lost actually exceeded the expected death rate by four times at the peak of Wave 2 in January 2021, according to Assa s Continuous Statistical Investigation (CSI) Committee.