The group risk industry paid a record £1.76bn amount in claims during 2019.

New data published by Group Risk Development (Grid) showed that the total claims paid in 2019 rose by £75m when compared to the year before.

The main cause of claims was for cancer.

The statistics show that a total of 26,433 families received financial help under one of these policies. This includes the 5,248 employees were helped back to work after a period of sick leave.

However there were a total of 74,707 “interactions” with group risk policies during 2019, which includes those using the support services that are funded by insurers, without necessarily making a claim.

Of these interactions, 37 per cent involved access to counselling and 12 per cent were related to family issues and 12 per cent to employment matters.

Grid says these various figures shows employers were increasingly using the range of group risk policies to provide financial and emotional support to employees and their families.

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