Disputes lodged with Australian life insurers rose 34.2% to 13,748 in the year to June 2026, while the number of claims received increased just 1.5% to 119,863, new APRA and ASIC data shows.
The figures cover 13 life insurers writing direct business and compare the latest rolling 12-month period with the year to June 2025. They show a sharp increase in disputes alongside slower claims finalisation and a larger pool of undetermined claims.
Insurers finalised 98,416 claims during the latest period, down 1.5%. Of those, 92,463 were admitted and 5,953 were declined. The number of declined claims rose 7.3% even as admitted claims fell 2.1%.
Undetermined claims move higher
The industry had 15,110 undetermined claims in the year to June, up 16.3% from 12,997 a year earlier. Finalised claims represented about 82.1% of claims received, compared with 84.7% in the previous period.
The admitted share of finalised claims remained high at about 94.0%, but it eased from 94.4%. The decline rate rose to about 6.0% from 5.6%.
Disputes grew much faster than underlying claim volumes. The 13,748 disputes lodged were up from 10,242, while resolved disputes increased 36.3% to 11,675. Undetermined disputes rose 34.1% to 1,590.
Disability income insurance accounted for 7,235 disputes and total and permanent disability cover for 5,024. Together, those two categories represented about 89% of disputes lodged across the industry.
Claims operations face a larger service load
The data does not identify a single cause for the increase. It does, however, point to greater pressure on claims-handling teams, dispute-resolution processes and the systems connecting insurers with superannuation funds, advisers and policyholders.
For insurers, the commercial issue is not limited to legal or regulatory exposure. Longer claim queues and more disputes can raise administration costs, require additional specialist staff and increase scrutiny of product design, evidence requirements and customer communications.
Disability income and TPD claims are often operationally complex because they require medical, employment and policy evidence. Their dominance in the dispute figures makes those portfolios the clearest focus for investment in triage, case management and early resolution.
APRA publishes insurer-level as well as industry-level data, while ASIC has updated its consumer comparison information on Moneysmart. That makes the release a public benchmark for boards, regulators and distribution partners to test whether individual claims outcomes and dispute volumes are moving with or against the market.
The next test is whether insurers can lift finalisation rates and contain the undetermined caseload as claim volumes remain high. The next biannual data release will show whether the dispute increase was temporary or reflects a more persistent shift in claims administration.
Source notes: APRA and ASIC media release, 16 October 2026; APRA Life Insurance Claims and Disputes Statistics, June 2026.
Featured image: conceptual financial paperwork; photo by Jakub Żerdzicki via Unsplash.
