KNOWLEDGE CENTRE
Escalation
Ghosted by Your Claims Manager? 5 Steps to Get a Response Within 48 hours
A practical escalation sequence to restart communication and get your insurance claim moving again.
Reading time ~ 8 minutes
You've sent the emails. You've left the voicemails. You've waited. And still - nothing.
Being ignored during an insurance claim is more common than it should be, and it's one of the most frustrating experiences a policyholder can face. It's not just inconvenient. When your finances, your home, or your health are tied to the outcome, silence can start to feel like an obstacle you have no control over.
Here's the thing: it doesn't have to stay that way.
Insurers operate within structured systems - and those systems have pressure points. When you know where they are and how to use them, you can restart communication faster than most policyholders realise. Some of these steps can prompt a response within 48 hours. Others shift the internal dynamics of your claim in ways that create movement over the following days.
Either way, you're not stuck.
5 steps at a glance
Send a clear written follow-up with a specific request
Reference the General Insurance Code of Practice
Ask for internal escalation to a team leader or supervisor
Lodge a formal Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) complaint
Escalate to AFCA if IDR doesn't resolve it
Step 1: Send a Clear Written Follow-Up
Stop calling. Start writing.
Phone calls are easy to ignore, hard to prove, and leave no record. A written follow-up - email is fine - does three things at once: it creates a timestamp, it establishes a paper trail, and it's harder to overlook in a inbox than a missed call notification.
Your message doesn't need to be long. It needs to be specific.
Ask for:
the current stage of your claim
what information, if any, is still outstanding
a confirmed timeframe for the next update or decision
Keep the tone calm and factual. Avoid venting - it gives the reader something to react to rather than act on. A clear, professional request is harder to dismiss than an emotional one.
Example:
"I'm writing to request an update on claim number [X], lodged on [date]. Could you please confirm the current stage of the claim, any outstanding requirements, and when I can expect the next update?"
Short. Specific. Professional. That's the goal.
Step 2: Reference the General Insurance Code of Practice
If Step 1 gets no response, your next message should make one thing clear: you know what standards your insurer is supposed to be meeting.
Under the General Insurance Code of Practice, insurers are expected to respond to written correspondence within 10 business days. If that threshold has passed without acknowledgement, say so - calmly and factually.
Example addition to your follow-up:
"As subscribing insurers are expected to respond to written correspondence within 10 business days under the General Insurance Code of Practice, I'd appreciate a prompt response to this request."
This works because most insurers monitor communication compliance internally. A written request that references the Code signals you're informed, you're keeping records, and you understand the standards they're accountable to. That's a different category of correspondent than someone who's just frustrated.
For a full explanation of the 10-business-day rule and what it covers, read: My Insurer Isn't Responding - What Are My Rights? →
Step 3: Ask for the Claim to Be Escalated Internally
If written follow-ups referencing the Code still produce nothing, it's time to move up the chain.
Most insurers have internal escalation pathways - team leaders, claims supervisors, or specialist review teams. Asking directly for your claim to be escalated to a senior staff member changes who sees it and who is responsible for responding.
Your request doesn't need to be aggressive. It just needs to be explicit:
"Given the lack of response to my previous correspondence, I'd like to request that this matter be escalated to a team leader or supervisor for urgent attention."
This step alone often restarts communication - not because the claims manager was deliberately ignoring you, but because escalation creates visibility that routine correspondence doesn't.
Step 4: Lodge a Formal IDR Complaint
This is the step most policyholders don't know they can take - and it's often the most effective one.
Every insurer in Australia is required to have an Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) process. When you lodge a formal IDR complaint, your matter stops being a general claims enquiry and becomes a compliance issue. It must be formally logged, investigated, and responded to within regulated timeframes.
What changes when you lodge IDR:
your complaint receives dedicated internal visibility
more senior staff become involved
response deadlines apply that don't exist for ordinary correspondence
the insurer's handling of your complaint becomes reportable data
That last point matters more than most people realise. Insurers track complaint volumes and resolution rates. An unresolved IDR complaint is a risk item - not just a workload item. That changes how quickly it gets attention.
You can lodge an IDR complaint at any point. There is no mandatory waiting period.
To lodge IDR, look for the insurer's formal complaints channel - usually labelled "Make a Complaint," "Customer Feedback," or "Internal Dispute Resolution" on their website. Standard customer service channels are not the same thing and won't trigger the same obligations.
Step 5: Escalate to AFCA
If IDR doesn't resolve the issue - or if the insurer fails to respond to your IDR complaint within the required timeframe - your next step is the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
AFCA is an independent body that reviews disputes between consumers and financial institutions, including insurers. Its service is free for consumers.
AFCA generally requires you to have attempted IDR first. But once that step has been taken, AFCA can become involved - and insurers take AFCA complaints seriously. An AFCA complaint that proceeds to determination is a matter of public record and affects an insurer's compliance profile.
Most disputes don't reach a full AFCA determination. The act of lodging a complaint often prompts resolution at an earlier stage.
Why Escalation Gets Results Faster Than Follow-Up Alone
It's worth understanding why this progression works - because it's not just about being more persistent.
Each step in this process shifts where your claim sits internally. Ordinary correspondence sits in a claims handler's queue. An IDR complaint sits in a compliance team's queue. An AFCA complaint sits on a senior manager's desk.
The further you escalate, the more people are involved, the more visible the matter becomes, and the more consequences attach to an unresolved outcome.
Most insurers resolve matters before they reach AFCA - not necessarily because they're in the wrong, but because unresolved external complaints carry real reputational and regulatory weight.
Understanding this changes how you approach the process. You're not just chasing someone who isn't responding. You're moving a matter through a system that responds differently at each level.
You're Not Chasing. You're Escalating.
There's a difference between repeatedly calling a claims manager and methodically working through a formal escalation process. One is exhausting and easy to ignore. The other creates obligations, generates records, and changes how your claim is managed internally.
If your claim has gone quiet, you don't need to get louder. You need to get more structured.
The Insurance Claim Delay Rescue Kit gives you everything you need to do exactly that - a tracking system to document every interaction, a framework for identifying when and how to escalate, and a library of AI-powered prompts to help you write calm, effective correspondence at every step of the process.
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