The claims skills shortage is a training choice insurers made
Almost half of UK insurers say claims management and adjusting is where talent is scarcest. A new accreditation for loss adjuster training helps, but only firms that still train will benefit.
Two years ago I gave a talk that started with me on stage in a suit and ended with me in casual clothes. I changed in front of the audience, one layer at a time. The point was simple: if we want people to come into this sector, we have to meet them where they are and then train them into it, not wait for them to turn up already dressed for the part.
Insurers that expected ready-made claims people, instead of training them, are now paying for it in complaints, leakage and regulatory attention.
In Gallagher Bassett’s 2026 Claims Insights survey, 48 per cent of UK insurers said claims management and adjusting was where talent shortages were most acute, as Insurance Business reported in April. Talent retention jumped from seventh to become their top concern.
Forty-eight per cent measures a feeling. It is carriers saying where hiring hurts most, and it counts no vacancies, no salaries and nothing about how long it takes to make a competent loss adjuster.
What it hides is the lag. Someone able to run a complex escape of water claim today needed an employer to invest in them years ago, when, in my view, too many firms moved the junior training-ground work offshore or into automation.
The same survey found 60 per cent of carriers now plan to grow their own, a promise about the end of the decade.
This week the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters launched an accredited training organisation programme, with Crawford & Company Adjusters (UK) the first through it. It matters less as a badge than as evidence. A House of Lords committee told the FCA to set out how it will tackle poor claims handling in home and travel, Insurance Times reported. When a supervisor asks how a firm knows its adjusters are competent, a named training route beats a headcount.
Accreditation recognises firms that already train, though, and does nothing for firms waiting for finished adjusters.
How many UK insurers could say today, with a number, how many qualified claims professionals they expect to employ in five years?