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Wartime

During the First World War Prudential paid in full claims arising from death due to war circumstances, when the policies had been taken out before the outbreak of hostilities.

No extra premium was charged for existing policies on the lives of those engaged in active service. The Courts (Emergency Powers) Act 1914 also protected policies against forfeiture as a result of non-payment of premiums due to the war.

War claims paid out by 1918 amounted to £5,000,000. Prudential paid 230,000 war claims out of the total of 674,000 deaths actually confirmed by the British Government - more than one third of the British soldiers killed during the war.

By the outbreak of the Second World War, Prudential had more than 28,000,000 policyholders. All Industrial Branch and many Ordinary Branch policies contained a clause reducing claims on deaths due to war causes. The board decided on 7 September 1939 that for the time being all claims arising from naval, military and aviation causes be paid in full.

Together with the other life offices, the Prudential agreed to protect Ordinary Branch policies from lapse due to hardship caused by the war – Industrial Branch policyholders were already protected under the Industrial Assurance and Friendly Societies (Emergency Protection from Forfeiture) Act (1940).

Throughout the war there were heavy annual claims for war casualties, totalling more than £3,000,000 by the end of 1943 and over £5,500,000 by the end of the war, representing claims on nearly 110,000 deaths; 21,000 of these comprised one third of all British civilians killed in air raids.