Dealing with claims fairly

Making claims easier for you

Whatever benefits your plan consists of, making a claim on your Protection for Life plan should be as smooth and straightforward as possible, especially as it may be at a difficult time.

Who to contact

We have dedicated claims teams to help make the process as simple as possible. Depending on the benefits in your plan, use one of the numbers below.

To register a critical illness or terminal illness claim, please call 0845 601 4839
To register a life cover or lifetime cover claim, please call 0845 601 4179
To register a premium protection claim, please call 0845 845 0033

We may record and monitor calls to help us improve our service.

Our claims history

Life Cover claims

Between January 2000 and August 2007 we paid out over £339 million in Life Cover claims*

Facts about Life Cover claims in 2006**

Cancer was most common reason for a claim on death, making up 52% of all Life Cover claims.
Average age of female life assured at claim 53 years.
Average age of male life assured at claim 54 years.
Average term of policy at claim 5 years and 10 months.

*Source: Scottish Widows, based on the number of life cover claims paid out on Scottish Widows and Lloyds TSB plans from January 2000 to August 2007. The data relates to Lloyds TSB claims paid out since January 2000 and Scottish Widows claims paid out since July 2002.

**Source: Scottish Widows, based on the number of life cover claims paid out on Scottish Widows and Lloyds TSB plans in 2006.

Critical Illness claims

Between January 2000 and October 2007, we paid out over £150 million in critical illness claims*. The most common reasons were:

Cancer
Heart related
Stroke
Multiple sclerosis
Children's claims

Help us to pay more claims

We have paid over 4,550 claims in the past eight* years which means that many lives have benefited from the security of our policies. On occasion some claims may be turned down, but the decision to do this is never taken lightly. The two biggest reasons for claims being turned down are non-disclosure of relevant information on the application form and claims that don't meet the policy definition.

To help ensure that a claim is dealt with quickly and efficiently, follow these simple steps.

Complete your application carefully and to the best of your knowledge and belief. If you're not sure if something is relevant then always include it. It's better to give too much information than too little.
If your circumstances change after you've applied, but before cover starts, make sure you let us know.
Make sure you know what is and isn't covered by your policy.

*Source: Scottish Widows, based on the number of critical illness claims paid out on Scottish Widows and Lloyds TSB plans from January 2000 to October 2007.