24 March 2015
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Life Assurance company Irish Life, today revealed its annual claims data which shows that cancer was the biggest cause of Life Insurance and Specified Illness Cover claims in Cork in 2014, with more than €9.3 million paid out. The data details the illnesses and conditions that led to payments of over €218 million throughout Ireland, in Life Insurance and Specified Illness Cover claims in 2014 for over 2,500 claims in total.
The figures show cancer accounted for 84 of the 159 Life Insurance claims paid last year in Cork, while cancer also accounted for 47 of the 79 claims for Specified Illness Cover claims paid in the county. Overall last year, Irish Life paid out €11.8 million for 159 deaths in Cork and a further €5.7 million in respect of 79 Specified Illness Cover claims.
The average age at death in Cork in 2014 was 63 for Life Insurance claims and 50 for Specified Illness Cover claimants.
Commenting on the data Gerry Hassett, Managing Director, Irish Life’s Retail business said: “The scale of the claims paid in 2014 shows once again it is crucially important for people – parents in particular – to protect the financial well-being of themselves and their families. Our research has found that over 90% of parents say that they would do anything to safeguard their family’s future but less than half of them say that their family would have no financial worries, if anything actually happened to them.”
He added: “In 2014 we paid out over €17.6 million for families in Cork to help to ease the financial burden at a very difficult time.”
