The 680-fold gap in insurance complaints that boards should question

The most useful number in the latest complaints data is the spread between firms, and I doubt many claims directors have been asked to explain where they sit in it.

Insurance DataLab’s analysis of the FCA’s H1 2026 data puts insurers anywhere from 0.06 to 40.72 complaints per 1,000 policies. That is a gap of almost 680 times.

I would rather a claims director could explain their complaints rate per 1,000 policies than recite their satisfaction score.

Is the gap just business mix?

Partly. A travel book and a buildings book will never look alike, and the analysts say so themselves. Mix struggles to explain upheld rates running from 5.0 per cent to 93.5 per cent among firms that closed at least 500 complaints, though. To me that says some firms are deciding complaints on very different terms from their peers.

Is the market improving?

Barely. Total insurance complaints rose 3.6 per cent in the half year. The share resolved within three days slipped from 45.5 per cent to 44.8 per cent, a small fall in the one measure customers feel directly.

Where is the pressure?

Travel, where complaints jumped 51.8 per cent and made up more than half the market’s increase.

Does it reach the ombudsman?

Yes, and claims sit at the centre of it. Insurance Times reported Insurance DataLab’s ombudsman figures showing claims handling behind 73 per cent of insurance referrals in the second quarter. A complaint handled badly in-house rarely stays there.

Who should own the number?

I think it belongs to whoever runs claims. Under the Consumer Duty, the evidence of good outcomes either lives in the claims file or it does not exist, and a board that only sees a satisfaction score is looking at the wrong page.

Which claims leaders already take their complaints rate per 1,000 policies to the board each quarter, and what did they change the first time they saw it?