The Ombudsman for Long-term Insurance (OLTI) and the Ombudsman for Short-term Insurance (OSTI) have released their final joint annual report for 2023, as they are now part of the National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa (NFO).
In the 2023 financial year, OLTI and OSTI collectively returned R386.5 million to complainants. This information comes from their 2023 joint annual report, marking their last report before being incorporated into the NFO, which began operating on March 1, 2024.
This merger included four former industry ombud schemes: the Ombudsman for Banking Services (OBS), the Credit Ombud (CO), OLTI, and OSTI.
In 2023, OLTI and OSTI together recovered over R386 million for complainants, with OLTI recovering R283 million and OSTI R102 million.
OLTI received 13,750 assistance requests, with 6,714 being chargeable complaints.
Of the 6,342 cases finalised, 26% were resolved in favour of the complainant. Complaints about declined claims constituted 50.3% of finalised full complaints.
OSTI saw a 5.6% increase in new complaints in 2023, registering 12,188 complaints and finalizing 10,534.
The average resolution time for complaints increased to 142 days. Motor vehicle insurance complaints made up 40% of all complaints, primarily involving declined claims due to policy exclusions.
Homeowners' claims, mostly related to damage from natural causes, accounted for 25% of complaints. OSTI’s resolved ratio, indicating overturned insurer decisions, was 16% in 2023.
Of the 12,188 complaints registered, nine were related to Covid-19, seven to Sasria arising from the July 2021 civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal, 220 to power surges, and 167 to the April 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal.
About 40% of all complaints involved motor vehicle insurance, mainly concerning declined accident-related claims due to policy exclusions such as lack of due care or precaution and misrepresentation or nondisclosure at the time of taking out the policy or during its term.
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