According to the annual report at the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India or IRDAI covering 2017-18 or FY2018, customer grievances in life insurance increased by a sizable 28% (year-on-year). Additionally, total complaints increased to a considerable 1,54,367 in comparison to 1,20,847 for 2016-17 according to the report. These grievances were mainly linked to business practices deemed unfair, servicing of policies and processing of proposals.
Resolution was however at approximately 99.87% with LIC having resolved 100% of complaints received by it. Private life insurance companies resolved around 99.74% of complaints received by them. The complaint tally came down by a handsome 16% in the general insurance segment with 43,995 complaints noted as compared to 52,104 in the earlier year. A big chunk of grievances or complaints were linked to claims and also to premiums, policies, proposals and refunds among other issues.
Health insurance complaints were higher over the last 3 years in comparison to complaints that were noted in the motor insurance segment. 94.36% of complaints received by general insurance companies were resolved by them according to the report. The IGMS (Integrated Grievance Management System) of the regulator is what handles complaints in the insurance sector. This functions as a platform for the generation of multiple analytical reports relating to customer grievances against insurance companies and also for posting grievances against insurance companies and raising the same with them.
