The number of small business insurance complaints to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) more than doubled last financial year.

Overall general insurance complaints also soared 17%, when comparing the average number of complaints received each month in 2020 with the same figure for 2019, AFCA’s annual review says.

More than 19,000 complaints were received – second only to banking and finance (46,820 complaints) – and general insurance makes up 24% of the 80,546 complaints received in total.

“AFCA also received 404 complaints about small business insurance, which is a significant increase to the 195 complaints received last year,” the report said.

“These included complaints related to business interruption, commercial vehicles, commercial properties, land and machinery.”

Some 17,564 general insurance complaints were closed, with 70% of them resolved by agreement or in favour of complainants.

Of the closed complaints, 8389 were closed at registration and referral, 5185 at case management, with 1944 going through to the final decision stage.

More than $62.6 million in compensation and refunds was awarded, and the average time taken to close complaints was 77 days.

Most complaints received were about delays in claim handling (3521), followed by the claim amount (3171), and denial of claim due to an exclusion/condition (3032).

Insurers received the highest number of general insurance complaints (15,568), followed by underwriting agencies (2195).

The most commonly complained about products were motor comprehensive (4104), home building (3616), travel (3168), motor uninsured third party (1189) and home contents (946).

Click here to read the review.