ONLY about three per cent of insurance claims made by victims of January's floods and Cyclone Yasi have been rejected, according to an insurance body.
But the claim has been questioned by Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale, who said a large number of claims were still outstanding awaiting a decision and that many people had been rejected.
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) yesterday said $2.31 billion worth of flooding claims have so far been approved by insurance companies.
The group said that figure was 100 per cent of the amount the 49,400 claims had applied for.
In a statement, the ICA said the $2.31 billion in approved claims showed insurance companies were helping residents rebuild after the flood disaster.
"As at March 25, about $625 million has been paid to flood and cyclone victims in Queensland which is further evidence of the important role insurers are playing in the recovery process," spokeswoman Sandra Van Dijk said.
"In fact payments to the community have exceeded $15 million each working day since the last update on February 24, 2011.
"This is a considerable financial injection to the Queensland community and the rebuild."
But Cr Pisasale said the figures could be "smoke and mirrors" while many people still waited for claims to be processed.
"All I know is that a lot of people I have spoken to haven't heard, or are just starting to hear back from their companies," Cr Pisasale said.
"Some of the good companies are doing the right thing, but there are others who aren't.
"There are a lot of people still hurting out there."
The ICA said the $625 million of payments it had made "clears away any talk of smoke and mirrors and proves that insurers are playing a central role in the rebuild".
The group said it would be months before they could say how many cases were outstanding, because dispute resolution could take a long time.
Flood victims who have been refused payouts by their insurance companies have been urged to appeal the decisions by Legal Aid.
Legal Aid Queensland consumer protection lawyer Catherine Uhr said up to 35 per cent of claims could be overturned.
The ICA said so for Cyclone Yasi claims, $868 million has been approved for 59,990 claims.
About $86 million had been approved for 6609 flood claims and $299 million for 38,984 storm claims in Victoria while the Perth fire had $35 million approved for 410 claims.
QUEENSLAND CONSUMER WATCH COMMENT: The insurance industry must be smoking opium if they are saying that all but 3% of flood victims' and Cyclone Yasi claims have been approved. Insurance companies have proved they are nothing but greedy commercial predators whose main interest is to serve shareholders and not policyholders. With the exception of Suncorp and its affiliated companies, every other insurance company has acted in a dishonourable way towards its claimants in the past three months. Tight-fisted, high-living corporate executives in their ivory towers in downtown Brisbane and Sydney should come to places like Goodna and Ipswich and see the hurt people are going through. It has been said there are "lies, damned lies and statistics" but now we are witnessing "liars, damned liars and insurance companies".
