KNOWLEDGE CENTRE
Timeframes
How Long Does an Insurance Claim Take in Australia?
Insurers have four months to decide a general insurance claim, and two to six months to decide a life insurance claim. Here is what applies to yours, and how to tell whether your claim is moving or has lost momentum.
Written by Jacki James, Founder, Potent Clarity.
Published: 30 July 2026 ・Last reviewed: 14 August 2026 ・
Regulatory information current as at date of Last reviewed, based on the 2020 General Insurance Code of Practice (updated 1 October 2023) and the Life Insurance Code of Practice (March 2025)
Reading time: ~ 7 minutes
There is a common assumption that insurance claims have no deadline, that an insurer can take as long as it needs, and the policyholder simply waits.
That is not the position in Australia.
General insurers must decide a claim within four months of receiving it. Life insurers must decide income-related claims within two months and lump sum claims within six months. Alongside those deadlines sit specific communication obligations that apply the whole way through - including a progress update at least every twenty business days, whether you ask for one or not.
Knowing those numbers changes what you are looking at. A claim in its sixth week with regular updates is progressing normally. A claim in its sixth week with no contact since you sent your documents is a different situation, and it has been a different situation for some time.
At a glance:
General insurers must decide a claim within 4 months, extending to 12 months only in defined circumstances.
Life insurers must decide income-related claims within 2 months and lump sum claims within 6 months.
You should receive a progress update at least every 20 business days on both general and life claims.
Once the insurer holds everything it needs, a decision must follow within 10 business days (general) or 15 business days (life).
Since January 2021, claims handling has been a regulated financial service, these are not simply courtesies.
You can lodge a complaint at any point. There is no waiting period.
Which Code applies to your claim? Home, contents, motor, travel and most business insurance sit under the General Insurance Code of Practice. Life, trauma, TPD and income protection sit under the Life Insurance Code of Practice, with materially different timeframes. Both are covered below. If your cover is held through your superannuation fund, additional rules apply to complaints, noted at the end.
What is the longest and insurer can take to decide a general insurance claim?
Four months.
Under paragraph 77 of the General Insurance Code of Practice, your insurer will make its decision within four months of receiving your claim.
That period extends to twelve months only where one of five defined circumstances applies (paragraph 78):
your claim arises from an event the Insurance Council of Australia has formally declared an Extraordinary Catastrophe, which is a specific declaration made by its board, not a general description of a bad storm season
your claim is fraudulent, or the insurer reasonably suspects it is
you do not respond to the insurer's reasonable enquiries
the insurer has difficulty communicating with you
you have requested a delay in the claims process
Two things follow from that list, and both are worth holding onto.
First, the twelve-month extension is not a general-purpose allowance. It is not available because a claim is complicated, because a report is slow, or because the insurer is busy. Complexity alone does not move a claim from the four-month rule to the twelve-month rule.
Second, if you have been told your claim will take longer than four months, it is entirely reasonable to ask which of those circumstances applies. That is a factual question with a factual answer.
The four months is also an outer limit, not a target. Under paragraph 76, once the insurer has all relevant information and has completed its enquiries, it must decide and tell you within 10 business days. The four-month clock is the ceiling. The ten-business-day rule is what applies the moment the file is actually complete.
What timeframes apply to life, trauma, TPD and income protection claims?
Different ones, which is why the general insurance figures above should not be applied to a life claim.
Under the Life Insurance Code of Practice (March 2025):
Income-related benefits, such as income protection, must be decided within two months of the claim received date, or the end of the policy's waiting period, whichever is later (clause 5.48).
Lump sum benefits, including death, TPD and trauma, must be decided within six months of the claim received date, or the end of any waiting period, whichever is later (clause 5.49).
Once the insurer holds everything it reasonably needs, it must tell you its decision in writing within 15 business days (clause 5.50).
One term worth knowing if it appears in your correspondence: a Show Cause letter or Procedural Fairness letter is the notice a life insurer sends before making a decision that would go against you. It must set out what the insurer is relying on, explain the effect on your cover, and give you a stated period to respond. Its purpose is to give you a chance to answer before the decision is made, so if one arrives, it is not the decision itself, and the response window matters.
The "or the end of the waiting period, whichever is later" wording matters. On an income protection claim with a 90-day waiting period, the two-month clock does not begin when you lodge. It begins when the waiting period ends. Reading the timeframe without that qualifier is one of the more common ways people conclude their claim is overdue when it is not.
The full timeframe reference
Two Codes, two sets of timeframes. The comparison first, then the detail for each.
Where the two Codes differ
Longest the insurer can take to decide. General insurance: 4 months of receiving the claim, extending to 12 months only in defined circumstances (GICOP 77, 78). Life, trauma, TPD and income protection: 2 months for income-related benefits and 6 months for lump sum benefits, from the claim received date or the end of any waiting period, whichever is later (LICOP 5.48, 5.49).
Decision, once the insurer holds everything it needs. General insurance: 10 business days (GICOP 76). Life: 15 business days (LICOP 5.50).
Progress update, whether or not you ask. At least every 20 business days under both Codes (GICOP 70, LICOP 5.6).
Written response to a formal complaint. 30 calendar days under both Codes (GICOP 147, LICOP 7.13).
General insurance
Home, contents, motor, travel and most business insurance. All references are to the 2020 General Insurance Code of Practice.
Insurer tells you what information it needs to decide: 10 business days of receiving the claim (paragraph 68)
Insurer tells you it has appointed a loss assessor, loss adjuster or investigator: 5 business days of the appointment (paragraphs 72, 73)
Progress update, whether or not you ask: at least every 20 business days (paragraph 70)
Response to a routine enquiry about your claim's progress: 10 business days (paragraph 71)
Copies of expert or service supplier reports the insurer relied on: 10 business days of your request (paragraph 82)
External expert asked to report back: within 12 weeks of engagement (paragraph 74)
Decision on the claim: 4 months of receiving the claim, extending to 12 months only in defined circumstances (paragraphs 77, 78)
Decision communicated, once the insurer holds all information: 10 business days (paragraph 76)
Written response to a formal complaint: 30 calendar days (paragraph 147)
Life, trauma, TPD and income protection
All references are to the Life Insurance Code of Practice (March 2025).
Insurer tells you about your cover, waiting periods, benefits and the claims process: 10 business days of the claim received date (clause 5.5)
Progress update, whether or not you ask: at least every 20 business days (clause 5.6)
Decision on income-related benefits: 2 months from the claim received date or the end of the waiting period, whichever is later (clause 5.48)
Decision on lump sum benefits, including death, TPD and trauma: 6 months from the claim received date or the end of any waiting period, whichever is later (clause 5.49)
Decision communicated in writing, once the insurer holds all information: 15 business days (clause 5.50)
Written response to a formal complaint: 30 calendar days (clause 7.13)
Are these timeframes actually enforceable, or just guidelines?
This is the question most people should ask and rarely do.
First, a term you will see used loosely elsewhere. The Codes apply to insurers that have signed up to them. Signing up is not a gesture: an insurer adopts the Code by signing a legally binding Deed of Adoption, which commits it to monitoring its own compliance and reporting annually to an independent committee. Any member of the Insurance Council of Australia selling products the Code covers is required to sign. The Insurance Council publishes the full list of insurers that have, so you can check yours in about thirty seconds.
AFCA also takes Code obligations into account when it considers whether a claim was handled fairly. So the Code is not a marketing document, and a breach is not merely a service complaint.
But there is a second layer that sits above the Codes, applies regardless of whether your insurer has signed anything, and receives far less attention.
Since 1 January 2021, handling and settling an insurance claim has been a regulated financial service in Australia. Insurers must hold an Australian Financial Services licence covering claims handling, and with that licence comes a legal obligation to provide the service efficiently, honestly and fairly. ASIC has since taken court action against an insurer for breaching those claims handling obligations and obtained penalties.
The practical implication is worth being clear about: the standards in this article are not courtesies your insurer has volunteered. The specific timeframes come from the Code, and almost every insurer you are likely to be dealing with has signed it. Underneath that, the obligation to handle your claim efficiently, honestly and fairly applies to every licensed insurer in the country, signed or not.
You do not need to argue any of this yourself. It is simply useful to know that when you point to a timeframe, you are pointing at something your insurer is accountable for.
How long do claims actually take in practice?
There is no reliable public figure, and any article offering you a confident average is estimating.
Claim duration is not centrally published in a form that would let anyone say "home insurance claims take X weeks." So rather than give you a number that sounds precise and isn't, here is what actually drives the difference.
Claims tend to resolve faster when:
the loss is straightforward to verify and value
no external expert is required
one party is responsible for the assessment
the documents requested were supplied in full the first time
no third party is involved
Claims tend to take longer when:
an engineering, medical or specialist report is required
multiple quotes or scopes of works must be obtained and compared
policy wording requires interpretation
a third party's insurer is involved
the claim arises during a period of high claim volume, such as after a weather event
Every one of those is a legitimate reason for a claim to take time. None of them is a reason for a claim to go quiet.
That distinction is the useful one, and it is more reliable than any average.
Is my claim taking too long, or is it just complex?
The length of a claim, on its own, tells you very little. A six-month claim can be well handled. A three-week claim can already be in trouble.
What tells you more is whether the claim is waiting or has lost momentum.
A claim that is waiting
The reason for the delay is named and specific. A particular report, from a particular provider.
The next step is identified, with a rough timeframe.
You know who holds the file.
Updates arrive, roughly in line with the 20-business-day obligation.
Information requests build on what you have already provided.
The explanation stays consistent over time, and progresses.
A claim that has lost momentum
The reason for the delay is general. "Still under review", or "with the assessment team".
The next step is not identified.
Who holds the file is unclear, or has changed without notice.
Updates arrive only when you initiate them, or not at all.
Information requests repeat what you have already provided.
The explanation changes between contacts.
A claim that is waiting has a clock running on something identifiable. A claim that has lost momentum has no clock running on anything, which is why it can sit for weeks without anyone inside the process registering that it has.
The difference is not about how patient you should be. It is about what you are actually looking at, and therefore what would help.
If your claim shows several of the patterns under a claim that has lost momentum, the detailed version of this is here: Insurance Claim Delayed? 7 Signs Your Insurer May Be Stalling →
What if a timeframe has been missed?
A missed timeframe is not an accusation. Most are administrative rather than deliberate. But it is a fact worth recording, and it changes what is reasonable to ask for.
1. Put the request in writing, and be specific. Ask for the current stage of the claim, what remains outstanding, and when the next update will come. A written request creates a record and a date. Neither exists after a phone call.
2. Note what has already happened. Not a complaint. A record. The dates you lodged, what was requested, what you supplied, and what came back. If you need to escalate later, this is the difference between a recollection and an account. Memory becomes unreliable faster than most people expect.
3. Refer to the specific obligation. "It has been more than 20 business days since I received an update" is a different message from "I haven't heard anything." One is checkable. My Insurer Isn't Responding: What Are My Rights? →
4. Lodge a complaint if that does not move it. Every insurer must maintain an Internal Dispute Resolution process, and you can use it at any point. There is no minimum waiting period, and you do not need to wait out the four months. A complaint must receive a written response within 30 calendar days. The 5 escalation steps and what each one triggers →
5. Take it to AFCA. If the complaint is not resolved, or you receive no response within 30 calendar days, you can take the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. AFCA is independent and free for consumers. Time limits apply, so it is worth checking them early rather than late.
Where to get free independent help
Potent Clarity provides educational information and organisational tools. It does not give legal or personal claims advice. If your situation calls for advice:
Insurance Law Service, operated by Financial Rights Legal Centre. Free legal advice for consumers on insurance matters. 1300 663 464.
Free financial counselling is available nationally through the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007, weekdays 9:30am to 4:30pm.
If your claim involves significant financial exposure or complex legal questions, consider independent professional advice.
FREE TOOL
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