One-third consumer complaints received are of Insurance Sector: Department of Consumer Affairs

The department of consumer affairs said that the disposal of consumer complaints doubled in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half.

By Ashutosh Mishra: Nearly one-third of the consumer complaints received by the department of consumer affairs are of insurance sector, said the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) during the Round Table Conference on Consumers and the Insurance Sector on Wednesday.

The department of consumer affairs said that the disposal of consumer complaints doubled in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half.

“Due to various proactive measures taken by the Department of Consumer Affairs, the disposal of cases in Consumer Courts has doubled during the period April to July 2022 vs August to November 2022,” said the Ministry of Consumer affairs.

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In addition, of total 5,78,061 cases pending before the Consumer Commission, 1,61,134 pertains to the insurance sector, said Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary DoCA.

The insurance cases are divided into many categories like travel insurance, life insurance, home insurance, car insurance, marine insurance, fire insurance, crop insurance, and, medical insurance among them most of the cases are seen in medical insurance and life insurance claims.

Members of the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission along with Presidents of the Jharkhand and Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions and Presidents of Hisar, Raigad, Jabalpur, and Gaziabad District Consumer Redressal Commissions along with members of J&K, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions, attended the conference along with many other shareholders and addressed the major issues faced by the commissions while disposing of the insurance cases.

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During the deliberations it was suggested that insurance policies need to be more transparent, worded simply in local language and exclusion and inclusions clearly identified.

The other suggestions included use of IT, setup of the intermediary management, no multiple hearing, consumers to be clearly informed about the requisites of the insurance contract so they have complete knowledge about the insurance policy, need for strengthening internal grievance redressal of the company, the terms and conditions of the policy including exemption clause to be readable font, avoiding use of jargons, and hyper-technical words etc, need for advocacy, creating awareness among the insurance sector and for crop insurance Ministry of Agriculture has made a framers grievance portal on which the framers can file the complaints. The whole emphasis is on honest and fair disclosure of terms and conditions of the insurance policy.

The main purpose of this stakeholder consultation was to find out the reason of the rise of insurance cases in the Consumer Commissions and reach to an amicable solution to hurdles while disposing of the insurance cases in the consumer commissions.