Discovery Employee Benefits has seen a shift in conditions driving disability and Income Continuation Benefit claims. Claims experience for the financial year ended on 30 June 2023 shows that elevated disability levels have persisted since 2020.
As a result, more than a third (38%) of the R1.94 billion the company paid out were for disability claims, with 74% of those coming from the Income Continuation Benefit (ICB).
During the Covid period (2021 and 2022), there was only a slight increase of 3% in income claim rates. The extended impact of COVID-19 and its knock-on effects have now pushed ICB claims to 10% above pre-pandemic levels.
The top drivers of the increase in ICB claims included:
- Cancer (up 4% from 2020 but up 32% from 2022)
- Respiratory diseases (up 66% from 2020 and up 22% from 2022)
- Nervous system (up 20% from 2020 despite a 10% drop from 2022)
- Mental and behavioural disorders (up 7% from 2020 despite a 7% drop from 2022)
- Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases (up 16% from 2020 and up 19% from 2022)
- Gastrointestinal diseases (up 122% from 2020 and up 22% from 2022)
The increase in these claims is likely a lingering effect of the decline in the number of health checks during the lockdowns. If health checks don't return to pre-pandemic levels, these elevated levels of claims have the potential to become the norm.
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