The NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) has released its compulsory third party (CTP) claims experience and customer feedback comparison report.

The report contains details about how the five CTP insurers – AAMI, Allianz, GIO, NRMA and QBE – performed across seven key customer indicators. Youi, which joined the scheme in December last year, will be included once it has received a significant number of claims.

According to the report, the five insurers accepted 9884 claims in the 12 months to March, representing 97.9% of overall claims lodged. This is lower than the 98.8% recorded in the corresponding period of last year when 11,298 claims were approved.

Taking too long to file a claim – more than 90 days after accident – is the most common reason why insurers rejected the claims during the two periods.

Other reasons for denying indemnity relate to claims not involving a motor vehicle accident and claims relating to an uninsured, unregistered or unidentified vehicle.

When it comes to pre-claim support, about 72% of injured people had their initial medical expenses covered by insurers in the 2021 year and 75% last year. This is when customers access treatment and care services after notifying the insurer, but before lodging a formal claim.

For income support, about 53% who were entitled to such benefits received the payments within the first month of lodging a claim during the 2021 year, compared with 51% in the year-earlier period.

The SIRA report says the sooner the insurer receives the relevant information from the customer, the sooner income support payments will be made.

Some insurers begin paying income support faster than others. Among the five insurers, Allianz had the highest proportion of customers who received income support within the first month of lodging a claim.

SIRA received 635 complaints and 178 compliments in the 2021 year.

Claims management makes up 45% of the complaints against the insurers, followed by claims service (18%), claims decisions (15%) and claims delays (12%).

Click  here for  more from  the SIRA report.