Home insurance payouts up 11% to help UK householders keep a roof over their heads
- The equivalent of £8.6 million paid every day to help households cope with the unexpected.
- Increase in payouts higher than the rise in the average home insurance premium.
- Average claim up 24% to £4,300.
- Subsidence payouts jump 21% - a legacy of last summer’s heatwave.
Our latest figures highlight a rise in home insurance payouts in the second quarter of the year, with claims paid, at £782 million, up 11% on Q2 2022.
The increase has been partly driven by a rise in subsidence claims following last summer’s record-breaking heatwave, settled after a period of monitoring and assessing the damage.
Our figures show that between 1 April and 30 June:
- £782 million was paid mainly to help customers cope with fire, theft, weather, escape of water, subsidence and accidental damage. This is the equivalent of £8.6 million every day during the second quarter.
- There was a significant increase in subsidence payouts during the quarter. Payouts, at £54 million, jumped 21% on the £45 million paid in Q2 2022. The rise reflects the surge in claims following last summer’s heatwave, with claims needing a period of monitoring to fully assess the damage and the right course of action.
- The value of the average claim paid rose by 24% to £4,300 on the same period last year.
- Despite the level of payouts, the average premium paid for home insurance rose at a lower rate. Our Household Insurance Premium Tracker shows that in the second quarter, the average price paid for a combined buildings/contents policy rose by 10% to £329 on Q2 2022 when it was £299.This highlights that, despite rising claim costs, property insurers are doing all they can to offer competitive deals.
More money being paid in claims than received in premiums
Last year, for a third year in a row, property insurers paid out more in claims than they received in premiums. In 2022, for every £1 they received in home insurance premiums, they paid out £1.22 in claims and expenses.
Cannot speculate on future prices
Individual insurers will make their own commercial decisions on prices and is not something we can speculate on.
Home insurance continues to do what it says on the tin – support customers when the worst happens. Not only being the roof over their heads and the family home, for most people their house is their most valuable asset which, without the protection of home insurance, could be at risk. These latest figures show that despite rising claims costs, insurers continue doing all they can to offer competitively priced cover to UK households.”
Mervyn Skeet
the ABI’s Director of General Insurance Policy
For more information please contact ABI Press Office.