Specialist individual income protection provider Cirencester Friendly has paid 95.2 percent of claims in 2018, up half a percentage point on the year before.
Of the 973 claims made over the year, almost 95 percent were eligible for consideration, the society said, of which 903 – or 95.2 percent – were paid, totalling almost £4.8m in benefits.
The most common reason behind making a claim was accident or injury which accounted for 38 per cent of applications.
Other claims listed included depression, cancer, heart or circulatory complications as well as back, neck and shoulder problems.
Paul Hudson, chief executive at Cirencester Friendly, said he was pleased to report positive claim statistics and an increase in those paid out.
Mr Hudson said: "There has always been a strong belief amongst consumers that illness or injury simply won’t happen to them and that if it does, the government will provide sufficient financial support. This is sadly misguided, and we seek to dispel this myth."
Cirencester Friendly has published its claims statistics for the past nine years.
Peter Chadborn, director and adviser at Plan Money, said it was encouraging that friendly societies were being so open about publishing their claim statistics.
Mr Chadborn said: "The claims paid by friendly societies seem to be higher than the average and this is borne out by Cirencester’s results, which are good."
He said by publishing claim statistics and the details of what was paid out, it would help advisers and their clients see that both friendly societies and insurers were not trying to "wriggle out" of paying.
"An adviser would be very wary of recommending an insurer that did not publish this information," said Mr Chadborn. "It is not the only factor to consider, but it is an important one."
