Legal & General has reported that it paid out £542 million in individual protection claims during 2015, representing a £22 million increase on 2014.

This means that the insurer paid an average of £1.5 million every day to its customers in 2015.

Legal & General paid 96% of claims for all protection products last year, including 97.9% for life, 95.1% for terminal illness, and 91.5% for critical illness. Over the last five years, the company has paid out £2.5bn for life, critical and terminal illness claims to more than 46,000 customers.

The firm helped 6,856 customers and their families with £277m in life claims in 2015, with. 97.9% of all claims paid. The largest claim paid was £1.2m and the average age of claimants was 63 years old.

91.5% of critical illness claims were paid, representing 2,601 customers who received a total of £167m. Similar to 2014, the most common conditions for those receiving payments were cancer (62.3%), heart attack (10.3%) and stroke (5.9%), with the average age of claimants being only 46 years old. The average critical illness claim paid was £65,585, with £838,000 being the largest claim.

95.1% of terminal illness claims were paid in 2015, with the total amount paid out being £94m. Cancer was again by far the most common cause of illness, accounting for 99.5% of all claims paid to 998 customers.

Steve Bryan, director of intermediary at Legal & General, said: “Dealing with a critical illness diagnosis or losing a loved one is obviously a very upsetting time in people’s lives. During such a difficult period we know our customers and their families rely on Legal & General to provide financial support, and in 2015 we did this by paying out an average of £1.5 million every single day.

“Our statistics show that thousands of our customers need our support every year, which reinforces the value and importance of life, critical and terminal illness cover, as these policies provide peace of mind to both individuals and families during these testing times. It is particularly sad to see a rise in the number of children’s critical illness claims last year, as this will be a truly heart-breaking time for parents. For this reason, we automatically include children’s cover in our critical illness policies for parents, so that we can support them throughout this difficult period.”