Many vehicle owners use the greenslips.com.au calculator to help them choose one of the five CTP insurers. While some just want the cheapest price, others would like to know more about each insurer. In August 2019, State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) started providing insurer performance data to help people make more informed comparisons.
This second report builds on the first report and continues to focus on each insurer, how they perform against the indicators, and what customers might expect when dealing with them.
Four indicators of insurer performance
SIRA is the government body that oversees the NSW CTP scheme. Its second release of insurer data covers the period from 1 December 2017, when the new CTP scheme began, to 30 September 2019. Each report shows how the five insurers – AAMI, Allianz, GIO, NRMA and QBE – measure up against four indicators of customer experience:
- How many statutory benefits claims insurers accepted
- How quickly insurers paid statutory benefits
- Claim decisions made after internal insurer review
- Number and type of insurer compliments and complaints received by SIRA.
We explain how each indicator of performance is important to customers.
1. How many statutory benefits claims insurers accepted
The new scheme since 1 December 2017 made statutory benefits available to people in the first 6 months after their car accident. It is up to insurers to accept claims for these statutory benefits and to do so quickly. In fact, insurers accepted an average of 98% of these claims.
The most common reasons for rejecting them were late lodgement (more than 90 days after the accident) and insufficient information.
2. How quickly insurers pay statutory benefits
How quickly insurers pay statutory benefits is important for helping people make a full recovery after an accident.
Customers can also get pre-claim support before they have made a formal claim. Around 72% of injured people received pre-claim support and a further 21% got treatment and care within a month of lodging their claim.
Income support is benefits paid for people who have lost income because they cannot work. While 41% of customers received income support within the first month of lodging a claim, most received it within 13 weeks.
3. Outcome of claim decision after internal review
When customers disagree with the insurer’s decision, they are allowed to request an internal review. Types of decisions they might review include minor injury, treatment and care, weekly payments, who was at fault in the accident.
Of 4,262 internal insurer reviews, insurers changed 25% of their decisions in favour of the customer.
4. Number and type of complaint or compliment
SIRA received 609 complaints and 118 compliments, around a fifth of the number of complaints. Most complaints were related to claims decisions and delays. Note, these figures do not include complaints or compliments given directly to insurers.
While SIRA says compliments help identify best practice performance in managing claims, it does not break down types of compliments received. This might be worthwhile as people are influenced in their decisions when they see others are satisfied with a service.
Information on individual insurer performance is available in the SIRA publication.
Source: State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA), CTP Insurer Claims Experience and Customer Feedback Comparison, 1 December 2017 to 30 September 2019. Published November 2019.
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