One South African was paid R38 million because he struggled to sleep

Insurance giant Liberty paid out over R38 million for a single disability claim due to a sleep disorder in 2025, making it one of the company’s largest pay-outs for the year. 

This was the largest amount that Liberty had ever paid out for a sleep-related claim, which it said is becoming increasingly common. 

Liberty used this example in its 2025 Claims Statistics presentation to highlight the “1 in 100 nature” of insurance. 

Liberty’s head of technical risk, Tom Crotty, told Daily Investor that insurance is all about the 1 in 100 who claim, not necessarily the 99 who pay their premiums without incident. 

This is because it is the only chance an insurer gets to show that it stands by its word and that the coverage it promised is being delivered. 

As part of this focus, Liberty emphasised several examples of unique individual claims that the insurer had in 2025 across its R12.63 billion worth of claims. 

This R12.63 billion includes all of Liberty’s lines of business, including the underwriting it does across Standard Bank, which saw claims of over R1 billion. 

Across its flagship Lifestyle Protector product, Liberty paid out R7.79 billion in claims to over 27,000 South Africans, which equates to paying out R31 million every working day in 2025. 

These payouts range from a 22-year-old involved in a car accident to a 103-year-old who suffered a cardiovascular failure. 

Crotty explained that these claims are worth the equivalent of 281,000 social grants or 23,000 annual average salaries in South Africa. 

Liberty estimates that the payouts affect around 140,000 people, with an average of 5 beneficiaries receiving a payment after a claim.

The vast majority of claims come as a result of cancer, cardiovascular disorders, and respiratory disorders. 

This varies greatly between males and females, with cancer being the dominant source of claims for females, while cardiovascular disorders are fairly even with cancer for men. 

Narcolepsy and sleep disorders

One of the newer sources of major claims in recent years has related to sleep disorders, such as insomnia, sleep apnoea, and movement disorders. 

“I never knew what this was before, but narcolepsy is a condition where you are unable to regulate when you are awake or when you are asleep,” Crotty said. 

“The reason we bring it up is that our largest lump sum disability claim was in excess of R38 million, and that was because of a sleep disorder.”

In this case, the disorder was sleep apnoea, which is a condition where your breathing repeatedly stops and starts while you are asleep. 

Instead of a normal, continuous flow of air throughout the night, the body goes through bouts of ‘mini-suffocation’ and then saves itself by waking up just enough to take a breath. 

These pauses can last from a few seconds to over a minute and can happen more than 100 times a night. 

The moments of waking are so short that most people don’t even remember them, but they can destroy the quality of your sleep. 

In the case of Liberty’s payout, the disorder was severe and significantly impacted the individual’s ability to work properly. 

Crotty explained that the payout stemmed from the client being unable to perform their occupational duties for an extended period. In this case, the client’s inability to work was considered permanent. 

Liberty has experienced a rise in significant sleep disorders over the past few years, as individuals become more aware of coverage and the impact of the disorders. 

Crotty explained further that, given the type of product the client had, the individual could take the payment as a lump sum or as monthly payments until they were 65. 

For temporary illnesses or disorders, Liberty’s Living Lifestyle protector pays a lump sum and a monthly amount for a period of two years. 

This gives the individual time to recover and rehabilitate before returning to the workforce. 

The breakdown of the client who suffered from sleep apnoea can be seen in the slide below from Liberty, with the individual having had the policy for just under 10 years.