Over the years, you may have read tabloid stories exclaiming, “Mother-of-two dying of ovarian cancer is refused life insurance pay out".

Disturbing news, if you’re one of the 26% of UK adults who are regularly paying your life insurance premiums. After all, what’s the point of making regular payments if, when the worst happens, the insurer doesn’t keep their side of the deal?

But can you believe such sensationalism? Are insurers so unlikely to pay out on claims? Some people seem to believe so. Earlier this year Royal London asked 2,000 UK adults what their reason for not having life insurance was and 14% said it was because they “don’t trust insurance companies to pay out in the event of a claim”.

It’s no surprise, then, that only one in four people take out life insurance. Some people just don’t think it will ‘work’ when they need it to. But, the fact is, the sceptics are wrong.

Insurers do pay out.

In 2016, around £13m a day was paid out to support people who have protection insurance products such as life insurance, critical illness or income protection, latest figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Group Risk Development (GRiD) show.

Here are the verified figures for 2016:

• 36,814 life insurance claims were paid
• over 98% of life insurance policy claims paid out
• almost £3 billion life insurance claims were paid out by insurers

So, that means that less than 2% of people don’t have a successful life insurance claim. It’s unfortunate that these are the cases that make the news and get talked about the most. But thankfully these cases are few and far between, as evidenced by the ABI.

For some types of insurance, the figure is even higher: for instance, insurers paid out on 99.99% of claims made on whole of life policies last year.

In total, almost 170,000 customers and families benefited from protection policies in 2016 — and the number rises each year.

The actual figures reveal an industry that generally does what it promises: you pay for the policy, and the policy pays out when you need it nine times (or more) out of ten.

Which, for the one in four (27%) of families who have experienced a loss of income due to ill health, serious illness or death in the family, according to Aviva, would be welcome news.

Those people who have been put off from taking out protection, due to the ‘no pay out’ myth, may well want to reconsider. If that’s you, we are here to help. Our expert advisors specialise in protection and we can advise you about the most suitable insurance for you.

To speak to an Essential Insurance advisor, you can call us on 0800 612 8005.