The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has revealed that insurers have received more than 22,000 insurance claims from policyholders across southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales following ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Of the total claims lodged, 20,460 are in Home, 1,182 are for Motor, and 758 are for Commercial.
The ICA observed that while the majority of claims are from Queensland (20,665), claim numbers across New South Wales are expected to increase in the coming days as some areas reopen.
The Council also noted that it is currently too early to tell the impact that TC Alfred will have and what the total damage bill will be.
“The last cyclone to hit Australia, Tropical Cyclone Jasper (2023), cost $409 million from around 10,500 claims. The costliest cyclone to hit Australia remains Cyclone Tracy (1974), which, normalized to 2023 values, would incur $7.4 billion in claims,” The ICA explained.
Andrew Hall, CEO of the Insurance Council of Australia, commented, “Claim numbers are rising daily with people assessing the damage to their properties and businesses. Insurers are committed to prioritising claims made by customers affected by this ongoing weather event.
“Today’s spike in claims was very much expected and in line with this stage in the recovery process as people start the clean-up process and get back to their homes to assess the damage. Where possible, though, we do encourage impacted policyholders to lodge a claim with their insurer, even if the full extent of the damage isn’t yet known.”
Meanwhile, Suncorp recently reported that it has received approximately 7,800 claims across both Queensland and New South Wales due to ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, as of Tuesday, March 11.
Of these, Suncorp noted that around 7,200 were in Home, including over 2,100 food spoilage claims, with most of these claims falling within the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool coverage period.
Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston said, “We continue to urge customers to prioritise their safety as flooding continues across many communities. We encourage impacted customers to lodge their claims online as soon as possible.
“In addition, our dedicated customer support teams, mobile response hubs and assessors are being deployed into affected areas as soon as it becomes safe.
“Our investments in disaster management capability and claims resources have left us well placed to prepare, respond and support the recovery.”
Notably, Suncorp has a comprehensive reinsurance program in place that provides protection against large weather events, with a maximum event retention of $350 million.
Suncorp’s main catastrophe cover provides protection of up to $6.75 billion with a full reinstatement in place.
The firm additionally maintains some residual cover from its Queensland Quota Share arrangement, which remains in place for approximately 25% of Home customers in the state.
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