Over 150,000 interactions with preventative services help employees manage their wellbeing
- Prevention and wellbeing: Over 150,000 interactions during 2023 with additional help and support services funded by Legal & General Group Protection, that aim to help employees manage their wellbeing.
- Return to work: 83% of all Group Income Protection claimants were able to return to work within the deferred period in 2023.
- Claims: The insurer paid almost £350m in group protection claims during 2023, an average of just under £1million paid every day, and an 8% total increase on the year before.
Legal & General Group Protection today shared data that illustrates the broad range of wellbeing support it provides to its employer policyholders and their employees, revealing there were over 150,000 interactions with additional help and support services available at no cost to employees to help them manage their wellbeing. Many of the interactions are as a result of the valuable support services included as standard as part of Legal & General’s Group Income Protection, helping employees from the first day of being covered, to Be Well. Get Better. Be Supported. when balancing their work life commitments.
In 2023, Legal & General paid total claims of almost £350m across Group Life Assurance (£249,381,122), Group Income Protection (£73,678,561) and Group Critical Illness (£26,156,685). This represents an 8% increase on the previous year’s total claims figure, which stood at just over £320m – that’s an average of just under £1 million paid out every day in 2023.
Extending access to preventative support for more people
Many of the employees covered by their Legal & General Group Protection benefited from immediate access to valuable support to help them keep well and in work. The support available through the arrangements made by these employers often extended to both the dependants of their employees and employees who weren’t being covered.
The total of 150,000 interactions includes usage of: Legal & General’s Employee Assistance Programme – including in the moment support, as well as structured counselling under their group income protection; and digital wellbeing platform which includes a virtual gym, nutritional pathways and shopping discounts. As well as these valuable facilities, employees covered by Legal & General’s Group Income Protection, also accessed virtual GP services, including online physiotherapy, mental health support and child mental health consultations.
Group Income Protection (GIP): helping people get back to – or stay in – ‘good work’
Cancer represented the most common reason for making a claim, accounting for over a quarter of all new claims. The average GIP claim paid was £21,843 with the average age of a claimant being 42.
83% of Group Income Protection claimants were able to return to work within the deferred period. 92% of employees with GIP mental health claims and 79% with GIP musculoskeletal claims were able to return to work between the time when they’re first absent for a continuous period and when a claim becomes payable – normally referred to as the deferred period, which is often 6 months. This maintains the strong results of previous years.
Legal & General says its consistency in prevention, early intervention and vocational rehabilitation results are due to its whole-person, outcomes-focused philosophy, which is embodied in its Be Well. Get Better. Be Supported. framework. This model is predicated on people getting back to – or staying in – ‘good work’ as a key health goal.
Vanessa Sallows, Group Protection Claims & Governance Director, Legal & General Retail:
“We’re proud to maintain our incredibly strong GIP early intervention and vocational rehabilitation results thanks to the experience and expertise of our amazing in-house teams and specialist healthcare partners.
GIP effectively helps to support employees manage their wellbeing, preventing them dropping out of the workplace in the first place and, where appropriate, helping them get back on track when they do. It’s for this reason that we report, for the first time this year, on total ‘interactions’ with preventative help and support services; an essential component of our Be Well. Get Better. Be Supported. framework.
Our goal is to help people return to – and stay in – good work, because that’s beneficial for whole person health and wellbeing; physical, emotional, financial and social. Some less obvious – but crucial – aspects of our vocational clinical support that help with this, include support to employers on working conditions, including stress risk assessments and reasonable adjustments, to help ensure return to work is sustainable.”
