New research from Prudential suggests that nearly £44 billion worth of critical illness, income protection and life assurance claims have been turned down by insurers in the past five years. The firm believes that during the period, as many as 1.6 million Britons have had claims rejected, with the average failed claim worth £26,435.

Critical illness policies were said to have the worst track record, with insurers rejecting one in five Critical Insurance claims. About half these rejections were due to insurers discovering that customers had failed to disclose something about their health when they took out the policies - usually unwittingly.

The remaining rejections were due to the policy not covering the illness the customer was claiming for. Prudential commented that serious illnesses can also have a big effect on a person’s lifestyle and earnings, but these do not meet many providers’ definition of a ‘critical’ condition.

Angus Maciver, Director of Insurance for Prudential, said: “Suffering from any of the big three – cancer, heart attack and stroke – will feel ‘critical’ to a customer. However, because of medical advances and the fact that diseases are diagnosed much earlier these days – often, at the point of diagnosis a customer’s condition might not be ‘critical enough’ to trigger a payout from a traditional policy.

The published research coincides with the launch of a new Flexible Protection Plan from Prudential.

The new protection plan provides cover on 140 serious and critical illness conditions which they suggest is more than four times the number covered by traditional plans. By introducing the new product, Prudential believe they will be servicing the huge protection insurance gap in the UK – one that would leave many people in serious financial difficulty should something happen to them which disrupts their lifestyle and interrupts their income.