India's biggest life insurer Life Insurance Corporation on Saturday assured its policyholders that the death claims arising due to coronavirus will be treated at par with other causes of death and payments shall be made on an urgent basis. Coronavirus has already claimed many lives and efforts are being made by LIC officials to locate Covid-19 victims on the basis of lists provided by the government authorities to help the families, LIC said, adding that "already death claims due to Covid-19 under 16 policies have been settled without losing any time."
During the previous financial year, LIC has settled more than 7.5 lakh death claims with only 0.75% of the total death claims reported remaining outstanding, the state-run insurer said.
Earlier this month, the Life Insurance Council said none of its members will deny death claims to any policyholder in the eventuality of loss of life due to the Covid-19 infection.
The clause of ''force majeure'' will not apply in case of Covid-19 death claims, the apex lobby of the life insurance companies said in a statement. The clause generally refers to unforeseeable circumstances that may prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.
It has also said all life insurers, both public and private, are committed to process any death claim pertaining to Covid-19 at the earliest.
Meanwhile, LIC has announced an extension of 30 days for payment of premium due in March and April 2020 to mitigate the hardships being faced by policyholders in the wake of Covid-19.
For February premiums, where grace period was expiring after March 22, relaxation is allowed up to April 15, LIC said in a statement. LIC's policyholders can pay premiums through LIC's digital payment options without any service charge.
Further, it said wherever policies can be revived without any evidence of good health, this can also be done online.
