ICA: Insured losses rise to AUD5.13 bn

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has released new data that shows more than AUD2 billon has already been paid to insurance customers impacted by the February-March floods that hit South-East Queensland, the Northern Rivers and other parts of New South Wales.

The latest figures reveal insured losses have increased six percent from last month to a record-breaking AUD5.134 billion.

This makes this year’s flood the second costliest extreme weather event in Australia’s history, passing 1974’s Cyclone Tracy and sitting only behind 1999’s Sydney Hailstorm, which caused insured losses of AUD5.57 billion (normalised to 2017 values).

In dollar terms, nearly 40 percent of the value of all claims made has been paid to customers. Of the 230,000 claims made from the event, 36 per cent are now finalised and closed.

The average claim is AUD22,000, with personal claims averaging AUD17,000 and commercial claims averaging AUD71,000.

The number and value of claims is evenly split between New South Wales and Queensland.

The new data comes as the CSIRO’s one-in-a-decade megatrends report reveals the cost of natural disasters is expected to triple over the next 30 years as climate change worsens.

The report echoed calls from the Insurance Council to increase Federal and State Government investment in measures to improve household and community resilience.

ICA CEO Andrew Hall said: “The Insurance Council looks forward to reviewing the findings of the O’Kane-Fuller Inquiry and will continue to advocate strongly for governments to increase investment in effective long-term mitigation solutions for communities at risk of flood and other extreme weather events.”