Motor insurance complaints topped the list of general insurance (GI) grievances in the UK in a period spanning the last five years. Research from Insurance DataLab found that car/motorcycle insurance accounts for one third of all GI complaints referred to the ombudsman from 2017 to 2022.
Out of almost 170,000 complaints lodged at the GI market, 55,250 were levied towards the motor insurance sector. Grievances toward the sector were also trending upward, as the Financial Ombudsman Service recorded 3,800 motor complaints in the final three months of 2022, a 49% year-on-year increase.
Insurance DataLab co-founder Matt Scott raised the alarm about these numbers, saying that regulators have already highlighted complaints figures as an area that insurers should be looking at when analysing customer outcomes as part of their Consumer Duty monitoring.
“Not good enough”
Insurance DataLab named buildings insurance as the second most complained-about product within the space, accounting for 16% of grievances over the last five years. This was followed by:
- Travel insurance at 12%
- Home emergency insurance at 7%
- Home insurance at 5%
Despite topping the list, complaints upheld in favour of the customer were highest for motor insurance at a rate of 26.7% over the last five years. All GI product lines averaged 30% across the board.
In a news release, Scott said that complaint upheld rates for the best performers in the market can be as low as 10.5%, a percentage that is wildly different on the other end of the spectrum.
“At the other end of the market, we are seeing a number of insurers with more than 30% or even 40% of complaints being upheld in favour of the customer – this is clearly not good enough, and with Consumer Duty coming into force this July, insurers need to act fast to remedy this issue,” Scott said.
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