Consumer complaints have declined for the first time in several years during 2007, breaking the trend of increasing volumes, the life-insurance ombudsman announced on Tuesday.
Reporting back on complaints resolved by his office in 2007, Judge Brian Galgut said last year’s case load had dropped by 1 311 cases (15%) compared with 2006.
”We received 7 923 complaints during 2007, significantly less than the 9 234 cases received in 2006. This decrease broke the seven-year trend of increasing volumes.”
Last year, 44% of the cases were resolved partially in favour of complainants.
The essential reason for the decline was improved investment returns delivered by the favourable stock-market performance over the past three years, said Galgut.
He said complaints concerning maturity values, policy performance and surrender values had shown the steepest decline, adding that a similar trend was experienced by life insurers.
Another reason for the decline was that many insurers had boosted their complaints-handling staff and streamlined their procedures. ”This means more complaints are internally resolved to the satisfaction of the consumer,” said Galgut.
He pointed out that the majority of complainants were from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, with a large proportion living in rural areas and townships.
”With this in mind we have enhanced all consumer-awareness activities, having learnt that the target market we are trying to reach is less receptive to mass-media campaigns than to face-to-face contact.” — Sapa