Consumer complaints up for PSU insurers
In contrast, the complaints against private life insurers have been steadily coming down for the past few years.
Chennai: Customer complaints against public insurers have been rising in the past two years, while those against private insurers have been on a downward slide.
In the life insurance space, LIC saw complaints rising from 30,784 in 2016-17 to 77,184 in 2017-18 and to 1,02,127 in 2018-19—a growth of 150.72 per cent in the first year and 32.31 per cent in the second year. Complaints against LIC have been coming down in the three years prior to 2016-17, as per data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.
In contrast, the complaints against private life insurers have been steadily coming down for the past few years. In 2016-17, they received 90,063 complaints and by 2018-19, it reduced to 61,137.
Across the segment, there has been a substantial decrease of 5 per cent in complaints about unfair business practices and a marginal decrease of 2 per cent proposal processing related complaints during 2018-19 over 2017-18. However, complaints pertaining to claims rose 3 per cent and complaints under ‘policy servicing and others’ increased 2 per cent during 2018-19 over 2017-18. Ulip-related complaints have kept the same share during the last two years.
In case of non-life insurance too, public insurers saw the complaints going up, while private insurers saw them coming down.
Complaints against public general insurers went up from 19,053 in 2016-17 to 20,968 in 2018-19—up 10 per cent. However, 2018-19 witnessed a drop in complaints from 22,568 to 20,968. Private general insurers saw complaints coming down from 33,051 in 2016-17 to 21,793 in 2018-19. In 2018-19, there was a flattish growth in complaints.
Both for life and non-life players, complaint resolution remained high in 2018-19. Life insurance companies resolved 99.95 per cent of the complaints handled. The private life insurers resolved 99.86 per cent of the complaints reported, while LIC resolved 100 per cent of the complaints.
The general insurance companies resolved 98.65 per cent of the complaints during 2018-19—private companies, 98.82 per cent, and public companies, 98.48 per cent.