As much as Rs 15,167 crore amount of policyholders is lying unclaimed with 23 life insurers, according to Irdai data. Insurance regulator Irdai has already asked insurers to take steps to identify the policyholders or beneficiaries and disburse the claims.
Board level committee for policyholder protection of every insurer is entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the timely payout of the all dues to policyholders.
It also oversees the steps taken by the insurers to reduce unclaimed amounts as part of the standard procedures on customer service.
Out of the total unclaimed amount of Rs 15,166.47 crore, as on March 31, 2018, insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is sitting on Rs 10,509 crore, while the 22 private sector insurers account for the remaining Rs 4,657.45 crore.
Among the private insurers, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co has 807.4 crore of unclaimed insurance claims followed Reliance Nippon Life Insurance (Rs 696.12 crore), SBI Life Insurance Co (Rs 678.59 crore) and HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co (Rs 659.3 crore).
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) had asked the life insurance companies to provide a search facility on their website to enable policyholders or beneficiaries or dependents to find out whether any unclaimed amounts due to them are lying with these companies.
Policyholders/beneficiaries are required to enter the details like policy number, PAN of the policyholder, name of the policyholder, date of birth or Aadhaar number, in a window provided on the website of the insurer to find out the unclaimed amount.
The insurers have to update information regarding unclaimed amounts on their websites on half-yearly basis.