Travel insurance claims can range from relatively modest cancellation costs to six-figure medical emergencies and repatriation. Recent UK figures show both the scale of claims and how strongly claim patterns changed as international travel recovered after the pandemic.
Contents
- Claims volumes and payouts
- The post-pandemic rebound
- Medical claims by destination
- How claim severity varies by age
- Large medical incidents
- What insurers paid for
- Complaints about travel insurance
Claims volumes and payouts
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) reported that its members paid £472 million across more than 500,000 travel insurance claims in 2024. That gives a useful current benchmark for the overall size of the UK market represented by ABI members, although the published figure is rounded for claim volume rather than a precise total. The figures come from the ABI’s “Eight to Embark” travel insurance claims update, covering 2024.
Medical treatment was the largest clearly identified part of that 2024 claims picture. Medical expenses represented 34% of all claims reported by ABI members, while ABI members paid £262 million in medical travel insurance claims. The average medical claim paid was £1,528. A separate ABI comparison published in its World Cup travel insurance guidance says medical expenses accounted for 56% of the £472 million total paid in 2024. These percentages describe different measures: one is a share of claim count and the other is a share of payout value.
The difference matters. Medical claims may be fewer than some other claim types but can represent much more money when treatment, hospital care or repatriation is involved. The ABI reported that one member paid more than £1 million for emergency treatment in the USA and repatriation to the UK during 2024. That is an individual example, not an average or a forecast.
The post-pandemic rebound
The ABI’s 2022 figures show how quickly claim activity returned as travel resumed. UK travel insurers dealt with 362,000 travel insurance claims in 2022, which was 148% higher than the 2021 count. Total payouts reached £352 million, 230% above the £107 million paid in 2021. The ABI presented these figures in “Pack your travel insurance this summer”, covering 2022 and comparisons with 2021.
The composition of claims also changed substantially:
| UK measure | 2021 or comparison baseline | 2022 result |
|---|---|---|
| All travel insurance claims | Baseline year | 362,000; 148% higher than 2021 |
| All claim payouts | £107 million | £352 million; 230% higher |
| Cancellation claims | Baseline year | 129,000; 75% higher than 2021 |
| Medical claims | Baseline year | 112,000; 235% higher than 2021 |
| Medical claim payouts | 2021 baseline | £197 million; more than 300% higher |
Cancellation claims reached 129,000 in 2022, a 75% increase from 2021. Medical claims reached 112,000, increasing 235% from the previous year. Medical payouts were £197 million, rising by more than 300% compared with 2021. The different rates show why claim counts and claim costs should not be treated as interchangeable measures.
The average UK travel insurance claim was £973 in 2022, 33% higher than in the previous year. The average emergency medical claim was £1,750, 26% higher than in 2021. In operational terms, UK travel insurers handled the equivalent of one new travel insurance claim every two minutes in 2022. The “every two minutes” figure is the ABI’s description of the annual flow, not a statement that claims arrived at a uniform rate throughout the year.
Medical claims by destination
The 2022 ABI data also identified the countries with the largest numbers of medical travel insurance claims in its dataset. Spain recorded just over 20,000 claims. The USA recorded 10,520, Greece recorded 8,492 and France recorded 7,480.
These are claim counts among the ABI data for 2022, not a risk ranking for every traveller or a measure of average medical cost by country. They also should not be read as probabilities: destinations with more UK visitors may naturally appear more often in an insurer dataset. The figures nevertheless show how concentrated reported medical-claim volume was among popular destinations.
The USA is notable in the same source for the scale of an individual case. During 2024, an ABI member paid more than £1 million for emergency treatment in the USA and repatriation to the UK. The 2022 destination count and the 2024 million-pound example measure different years and different things, so they should be kept separate when assessing cover.
How claim severity varies by age
The ABI’s 2022 age figures show a marked difference between average claim values for two age bands. For UK travellers aged 36–40, the average travel insurance claim was £571. For travellers aged 71–75, the average was £1,950.
The same comparison reported average single-trip premiums of £40 for ages 36–40 and £109 for ages 71–75. These are averages for the stated age bands and year; they do not establish the price of an individual policy. They also do not explain every reason for the difference in claim severity.
| UK traveller age band | Average claim in 2022 | Average single-trip premium in 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| 36–40 | £571 | £40 |
| 71–75 | £1,950 | £109 |
The age comparison is useful because it puts premiums beside claims rather than looking at price alone. It also reinforces the importance of checking the policy’s medical and cancellation terms for the traveller’s actual circumstances. The ABI figures are descriptive averages for 2022, not a promise that older travellers will make a claim or that a younger traveller’s claim will be smaller.
Large medical incidents
Average values conceal the financial effect of exceptional cases. The ABI recorded a Thailand claim in 2022 involving intensive treatment and an air ambulance to the UK that cost £250,000. It also recorded a Spain claim for private treatment for a kidney infection costing £15,000.
Both cases were reported as examples of claims, not as typical costs for Thailand or Spain. They illustrate why a policy’s medical-expense and repatriation limits can matter even when the traveller expects a routine holiday. The 2022 average emergency medical claim was £1,750, but a single serious incident could be many times higher.
The 2024 USA case reported by the ABI exceeded £1 million for emergency treatment and repatriation. Taken together, these examples span £15,000, £250,000 and more than £1 million, but they are not a statistical distribution and should not be averaged. They are separate reported incidents from different destinations and years.
What insurers paid for
The ABI’s Annual Report 2024 reported £511 million in UK travel insurance claim payouts in 2023. Medical expenses accounted for £291 million of that amount, while cancellation costs accounted for £174 million.
The ABI comparison published in 2025 said medical expenses made up 29% of UK travel insurance claims in 2023. As with the 2024 figures, the wording distinguishes claim composition from payout composition: the £291 million figure is a value, while 29% is presented as a share of claims. The available figures do not support treating those two measures as the same denominator.
For context, the ABI reported £107 million in UK travel insurance claim payouts in 2021, £352 million in 2022 and £511 million in 2023. These values come from different ABI publications and measurement years. They show the reported recovery in payout totals, but they do not by themselves prove that every insurer, destination or policy type followed the same pattern.
Complaints about travel insurance
Claims data and complaint data measure different parts of the customer experience. The Financial Ombudsman Service recorded 4,466 travel insurance complaints from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, up from 3,745 in 2022/23 and 2,510 in 2019/20. The figures are reported in Travel insurance complaints at their highest levels since the pandemic.
Earlier annual figures show the pandemic-era disruption clearly. The Financial Ombudsman recorded 8,175 travel insurance complaints in 2020/21 and 2,116 in 2021/22, according to its 2021/22 Annual Report and Accounts. These complaint totals are cases received by the Ombudsman, not the total number of complaints first made to insurers and not the total number of claims.
Quarterly data adds more detail:
- In April–June 2023, the Financial Ombudsman received 1,101 travel insurance complaints, compared with 504 in April–June 2022. The figures are from its Q1 2023/24 data.
- In October–December 2021, it received 397 complaints, compared with 2,561 in the same quarter of 2020/21. Its Q2 comparison described this as an 84% year-on-year fall.
- The Ombudsman also reported that complaints fell 59% from Q4 2020/21 to Q1 2021/22 in its Q1 2021/22 data.
More recent Ombudsman reports place complaint activity in a later period. It received 3,200 travel insurance complaints between 1 April and 31 December 2025, according to its holiday-cover update. It then recorded 1,200 complaints in January–March 2026 and 1,300 in April–June 2026; the latter was reported as 30% higher year on year in its first-quarter 2026/27 update. These are complaint counts for specified reporting periods, not forecasts for the remainder of 2026/27 and not evidence that complaint rates match claim rates.