New Delhi Dec 22 PTI Net incurred claims of standalone health insurers rose by 534 per cent in the COVID-hit 2020-21 compared to 3547 per cent increase in the preceding year showed the Annual Report of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Irdai on Wednesday The incurred claims of the overall general insurers too grew at a lower rate of 292 per cent compared to 726 per cent during financial year 2019-20 In actual terms net incurred claims of stand-alone health insurers were Rs 677909 crore during 2020-21 This compared with Rs 643543 crore during 2019-20 As per the Annual Report 2020-21 the net incurred claims of the general insurers stood at Rs 112 lakh crore in 2020-21 as against Rs 108 lakh crore in 2019-20 The incurred claims exhibited an increase of 292 per cent during 2020-21 The private sector general insurers stand-alone health insurers and specialised insurers reported increase of 240 per cent 534 per cent and 13243 per cent respectively over the previous year while the PSU general insurers reported a decrease in the incurred claims at 401 per cent Among the various segments health segment had the highest claims ratio at 8951 per cent during 2020-21 as against a claim ratio of 8570 per cent of previous year the report said It further said the new policies issued by stand-alone health insurers at 10541 lakh an increase of 1434 per cent over 2019-20 The growth in issuance of new policies by them was 1663 per cent The report further said the life insurance industry paid benefits of Rs 399 lakh crore in 2020-21 Rs 351 lakh crore in 2019-20 constituted 6342 per cent of the gross premium underwritten 6135 per cent in 2019-20 LIC paid benefits of Rs 286 lakh On death claims Irdai report said in case of individual life insurance business during 2020-21 out of the total 1101 lakh claims the life insurers paid 1084 lakh claims with a total benefit amount of Rs 26422 crore The claims pending at the end of the year were 3055 for Rs 623 crore During 2020-21 life insurers issued 28127 lakh new policies under individual business out of which LIC issued 20975 lakh policies 7457 per cent and the private life insurers issued 7152 lakh policies 2543 per cent The private sector insurers registered a growth of 289 per cent in the number of new policies issued against their previous year LIC and the industry have shown a decline PTI NKD CS MR