Non-payment Of Death Benefits: Federal Govt Threatens To Blacklist Insurance Firms

The federal government has threatened to blacklist insurance companies handling the accounts of the civil servants for non-settlement of their death benefits.

The head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, made this known at a meeting with officials of the Group Life Insurance Policy for Federal Civil Servants.

In a statement by Mohammed Ahmed, deputy director of Communications for the Office of the head of Service, Yemi-Esan who expressed disappointment on the issue, said that the dead could not defend themselves and that the officials should immediately remedy the situation.

She said the government was doing its best to improve the welfare of families of deceased workers through the prompt release of funds for the payment of death benefits but lamented that underwriters and Brokers were frustrating the efforts by their attitude.

She maintained that the meeting with the insurance officers became necessary to bridge the gap between the Underwriters and Brokers as it was unreasonable to continue doing the same thing repeatedly without achieving meaningful results, that if the Brokers are no longer relevant, then they should be blacklisted.

Yemi-Esan further said that the payment of insurance claims is not rocket science, stressing that the Office of the Head of Service performs a similar function by settling a backlog of claims not covered by the present arrangement, seamlessly.

“The Key Performance Indexes (KPIs) on settlement of claims as of September 2022 indicates that the total number of claims reported was 776; the number of claims paid was 357; total sum on claims reported, N4,201,392,384.27; the number of awaiting EDVs from HoS/MDAs 101.

“Total amount paid was N1,574,709,562.12, number of awaiting DVs from LEAD Underwriter 150 (N2,626,682,822.15), total amount expected from EDVs N785,123,928.73, number of incomplete documentations 168 and total outstanding claims is N1,841,558,893.42,” she said.

She further stated that from the breakdown of the report, there is a clear indication of a huge gap between the number of claims reported and those paid, adding that there is a need for improvement from the Insurance service providers, as there is always room for other alternatives.

The Lead Underwriter and CEO of Old Mutual (Nig.) Ltd., Mr. Segun Omosehin expressed his gratitude to the Head of Service for her concerns and show of outright displeasure with their low performance.

He made a firm commitment to support the Head of Service by doing the needful to bridge the gap existing between the Underwriters and the Brokers, which he identified as the major issue responsible for the late payment of claims to families of departed Civil Servants.