Every day in 2025, protection insurers paid out £21.5 million to families across the UK. Money that arrived at exactly the moment it was needed most: after a bereavement, a cancer diagnosis, or an injury that stopped someone earning.
Across the year, that added up to £7.84 billion [1]. If you’ve ever wondered whether protection insurance is “worth it,” this is the number that answers the question. If you don’t already have cover in place, or haven’t reviewed it in a while, get in touch. It’s a conversation worth having before you need it, not after.
The Numbers Behind the Headline:
- New data from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Group Risk Development (GRiD) shows individual protection claims alone totalled £5.15 billion in 2025.
- Insurers paid out an extraordinary 9% of all individual claims, a figure that has held above that level for more than a decade.
- Critical illness claims topped £1 billion for the fifth year running, with the average payout reaching £67,000, nearly two-thirds of those claims were for cancer.
- Income protection claims hit a record £209 million, and crucially, 7,600 people were able to return to work last year.
- Perhaps most telling of all: nearly one in five income protection claims were for mental health conditions, a reminder that protection isn’t only about physical illness [1].
Why This Matters to You:
It’s easy to think of protection insurance as something you pay into and hope never to use. But behind every one of those figures is a family whose mortgage got paid, whose income kept coming in, or who didn’t have to worry about money while dealing with something far more important.
Let’s Talk:
Whether you’ve got existing cover that needs a health check, or you’ve never looked at protection insurance before, now is a good time to start. Reach out today, and we’ll walk through your options together , no pressure, no jargon, just clarity on what’s right for you and your family.
