New Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) data suggests insurers reject almost three in 10 home insurance claims.
It’s a little better for travel insurance customers, with claims accepted between 83% and 85.5% of the time (depending on the type of travel insurance owned).
However, claims acceptance rates exceeded 90% for most of the insurance products covered by the FCA’s data. Overall, the rates have changed little since last year, when the FCA published its 2024 figures.
Here we unpack what the data shows, which kinds of insurance and providers stood out, the important limitations of the figures, and what to do if you think your insurer has unfairly rejected your claim.
Car insurers accept the most claims
The FCA’s General Insurance Value Measures data, which covers claims handled during 2025, compares how insurers performed for customers making claims across 34 different insurance areas – from car insurance to gadget cover.
This chart shows the claims acceptance rates and claims complaints (the percentage of claimants who lodged a complaint) for car, home, travel and pet insurance.
- Find out more: best car insurance
Inconsistencies in the data
In publishing its latest round of claims statistics, the FCA noted that home insurance claims acceptance rates were relatively low and that for both home and travel insurance, complaint rates were high among claimants. It said it expects to see these trends improve as a result of work it’s undertaking this year in response to Which?’s campaigning.
However, the regulator also warned that, when it came to comparing individual home insurers, it believed there were inconsistencies in how firms report their claims acceptance data. That means firm-level figures should be interpreted with caution.
When we spoke to 10 firms featured (unflatteringly) in the latest statistics, all either drew attention to the FCA’s caveats or flagged how factors such as different types of claims, company size or numbers of claims made, could distort some companies’ results.
Claim or ‘query’?
One potential inconsistency is how insurers define a ‘claim’ when reporting how many they’ve accepted and rejected to the FCA.
The FCA requires companies to regard a ‘claim’ as having begun when a customer contacts the insurer ‘in respect of a potentially claimable event or loss.’ In other words, if you phone the insurer because you’ve spilled tea on your laptop.
However, some firms argue that not all of their competitors are properly doing this – and are instead recording customers who’d formally begun claims, but not interactions considered to be ‘queries’ (for example, if you’re told you wouldn’t be able to claim for your laptop because your policy doesn’t have accidental damage cover).
Insurers that don’t report these initial contacts would appear to have higher claims acceptance rates than those that include all potential claimants.
The FCA says it’s started an industry working group to further consider the statistics, including reporting inconsistencies.
The insurers accepting the fewest claims
Of the home and travel insurers listed in the data, four had reportedly accepted under half of claims they’d received.
Chubb European Group SE accepted just 30-35% of claims on travel insurance single trip add-on products, according to the FCA’s listing. We reached out to the insurer for comment, but it has not responded so far.
Esure Insurance Limited, meanwhile, is listed as having paid 40-45% of claims on buildings-only policies. It echoed the FCA’s note that comparisons of claims rates between insurers should be treated carefully.
Esure Insurance Limited added: ‘Helping customers understand their cover and supporting them through the claims process remains a key priority for us. Over the past year, we have enhanced the customer experience through clearer information about cover and what to expect when making a claim, the introduction of our cover checker tool, and improved communications throughout the customer journey. We continually review customer feedback and claims insights to identify opportunities to further improve clarity, understanding and customer outcomes.’
- Find out more: best home insurance
New products and disputed stats
Casualty & General Insurance Company (Europe) Ltd (CGICE) and Lloyds Bank General Insurance Limited are also listed as having accepted between 45% and 50% of claims on some of their products – CGICE on its combined buildings and contents home insurance, and Lloyds Bank on its buildings-only cover.
Both sought to provide context for the figures. CGICE said its home insurance product was new, having launched in late 2024, and that its reported acceptance rate reflected fewer than 100 closed claims. The figure also doesn’t include accidental damage claims, which are underwritten by a separate company. It added that it expects its ‘reported figures to align more closely with the market over time.’
Meanwhile, Lloyds said its figures include ‘a range of customer enquiries that some insurers may exclude’. It argued that it has actually accepted ‘around four out of five claims’ once enquiries that didn’t result in a formal claim are excluded.
- Find out more: best travel insurance
Worst for complaints
Among home and travel insurers, Intact (formerly RSA) and Watford Insurance Company Europe Limited fared worst when it came to complaints. Between 25% and 30% of customers making claims with these firms lodged a complaint.
Intact now only sells commercial insurance and thinks these statistics – which reflect policies held by its declining number of personal customers – are skewed. A spokesperson said:
“We are confident in how we govern and oversee our claims process to deliver fair value to our customers and our customer outcome monitoring allows us to verify the quality of the products and services we provide.”
Watford has yet to respond to our request for comment.
- Find out more: How to make a complaint to your insurer
‘Meaningful improvements are needed’
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said:
‘When Which? submitted its super-complaint about the home and travel insurance markets last year, the distressing combination of low claims acceptance rates and high complaints numbers were among our chief concerns, so it’s worrying to find that these remain largely unchanged.
‘It is also concerning that suspected inconsistencies and lack of granularity in how firms record claims data may be obscuring the full picture from view – information that is desperately needed if the FCA is to get to the root cause of the serious issues in these markets.
‘It is imperative that the FCA seizes this opportunity to drive meaningful improvements in the industry. Another year cannot slip by where claims acceptance rates are allowed to remain so stubbornly low.’
What to do if your insurer unfairly turns down your claim
If your insurer turns down your claim, it’s not the end of the road. Contact the insurer for a clear explanation behind its rationale, and complain if you disagree.
In over half of complaints made to insurers in the second half of last year, the insurer upheld the complaint – meaning it admitted to getting something wrong.
If, after eight weeks, the insurer hasn’t responded or you’re not satisfied with its response, you can escalate the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS will impartially re-examine your complaint and reach its own decision on what the outcome should be.
Between April and June this year, the FOS upheld 33% of Buildings insurance complaints it reviewed in the customer’s favour, and 32% of travel insurance complaints. It’s reported that the most commonly complained-about issue with travel insurance was declined claims.
