[Last updated 15 July 2026]

For both funeral policies and life microinsurance policies, the original sum assured benefit cap was set at R100,000. The rules say each escalates with inflation, but there is no consistent official source of the currently applicable amount. Is the CPI escalation really in force, enough that you can rely on it? How do you calculate it, exactly? And where do you find the figure for each year?

I have answers!

The short answer is that the escalation is real and automatic. It is written into the prudential standards, and the regulators have confirmed in writing that the limits rise “annually and automatically” with CPI (Joint Communication 4 of 2020, clause 3.4.1).

What is missing is a published number. Neither the Prudential Authority (PA) nor the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) puts out the escalated figure for any given year, which is exactly why some insurers have been unsure whether to use it.

The post includes the caps, the primary source wording that specifies them, and the year-by-year values on official Statistics South Africa data. As always, the amount that applies to your specific product or licence is a question for your PA or FSCA frontline analyst before you rely on it.

The two caps – funeral and microinsurance

These two caps sit in different standards, for different insurers, but they are deliberately the same number.

The funeral cap. Prudential Standard GOI 7 prescribes, for the Funeral class of life insurance business, a

“maximum amount of R 100 000 (hundred thousand Rand) per life insured, escalating annually, from the commencement date of this Prudential Standard, by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual inflation rate published by Statistics South Africa, as defined in section 1 of the Statistics Act, 1999”

(GOI 7 clause 5.2, quoted verbatim by the Authorities in Joint Communication 7 of 2024, footnote 3). GOI 7 applies to insurers “other than microinsurers”, so this is the traditional-insurer funeral number. It commenced on 1 July 2018.

The microinsurance caps. The Governance and Operational Standard for Microinsurers (GOM), clause 11.1, prescribes:

“a) Life insurance: R 100 000 per life insured, escalating annually, from the commencement date of this Prudential Standard, by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual inflation rate published by Statistics South Africa…

2. Non-life insurance: R 300 000, per policy, escalating annually, from the commencement date of this Prudential Standard, by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual inflation rate published by Statistics South Africa…”

GOM commenced on the same day, 1 July 2018 (clause 3.1). Most life microinsurance is funeral business, so in practice the micro life cap is also mostly a funeral number.

The match is not a coincidence. It is deliberate consistency, so that what is, in many customers’ eyes, the same product faces the same limit whichever licence writes it.

The escalation is in force, and automatic

This is the part people are unsure about, so it is worth quoting the regulators directly. In Joint Communication 4 of 2020, the FSCA and the PA state, at clause 3.4.1:

“The PA confirms that the maximum prescribed limits will be increased annually and automatically by the CPI rate published by Statistics South Africa. Contractual increases automatic or otherwise must result in policy benefits that remain within the prescribed thresholds at any given point in time.”

Two things follow. First, you do not need an annual re-publication for the cap to increase. It moves by operation of the standard. Four years later the Authorities said the same, describing the GOI 7 cap as the maximum that “currently” applies (Joint Communication 7 of 2024, footnote 3).

Second, a CPI-linked benefit escalation is catered for. Set the starting Sum Assured at or below the cap, and it stays within the cap as both rise together.

The current values, year by year

Take the R100,000 base at the July 2018 index and scale it by the Stats SA headline CPI index (Table B1, December 2024 = 100). The standard names “CPI” without naming a reference month. I use the July index, because the escalation runs from 1 July, and the June index or the compounded annual rate give the same answer to within a tenth of a percent.

Effective 1 July	Stats SA headline CPI index (Dec 2024 = 100)	Funeral / micro life cap (R100k base)	Micro non-life cap (R300k base)
2018	75.3	R100,000	R300,000
2019	78.2	R103,851	R311,554
2020	80.7	R107,171	R321,514
2021	84.5	R112,218	R336,653
2022	91.1	R120,983	R362,948
2023	95.4	R126,693	R380,080
2024	99.8	R132,537	R397,610
2025	103.3	R137,185	R411,554
2026 (provisional)	106.7	R141,700	R425,100

The 2018 to 2025 rows use the published July index. The 2026 row is provisional: the July 2026 index only publishes on 19 August 2026, so it uses the latest available index (May 2026) and will firm up then. The non-life column is the same calculation from a R300,000 base.

One independent check. The only escalated figure any official body has stated is a FAIS Ombud comment, quoted in the trade press in January 2024, giving the 1 July 2023 funeral maximum as R126,773.46. That is not a PA or FSCA publication, and the Ombud is a dispute-resolution body rather than the prudential regulator, so treat it as a cross-check rather than a source. It is a useful one: this method returns R126,693 for 2023, which is 0.06% away.

The escalation is mandatory, but neither the PA nor the FSCA publishes the resulting amount, which is why the only figure in circulation had to reach the market through an Ombud comment. So the number is yours to compute. I don’t know why there isn’t a single authoritative source. As always, if in doubt, check with your front line PA and FSCA analysts and get an answer to your particular case, for your particular product, and your particular licence conditions.

Important heads-up: What counts towards the cap?

The cap is per life insured, per insurer. Joint Communication 4 of 2020, clause 2.5 (footnote 1), explains that

“the amount that may be insured per life insured cannot exceed R100 000 in respect of a particular insurer, the number of policies under which such life is insured is therefore irrelevant”

So stacking several policies on one life with the same insurer does not raise the ceiling: four R30,000 policies do not pay R120,000, and that insurer may pay at most R100,000 on that life. Different insurers do not aggregate, though, so a life covered by several insurers can be paid up to R100,000 by each. That cross-insurer gap is the over-insurance issue the Authorities are now reviewing.

Riders count too, in aggregate. Clause 3.3.1 confirms the maximum “includes rider benefits” and that “the prescribed maximum limit applies to both primary and ancillary benefits on the aggregate”. Primary benefit plus every rider is summed against the one indexed cap.

A cashback rider, a grocery or education benefit, or a waiver of premium all draw on the same R100,000.

Double accidental death (where double the stated Sum Assured is paid on accidental death) is a particular case to watch out for. The PA lists “the double accidental death benefit that will lead to the R100 000 threshold being exceeded” and confirms it is subject to the cap like any rider.

In practice, offering a double accident death benefit effectively limits the base sum assured to half the cap, so that twice it lands on the cap rather than over it.

Cashback and loyalty benefits carry an extra restriction for microinsurers. GOM clause 11.2 provides that a microinsurer

“may not, without the approval of the Prudential Authority, issue a life insurance policy or a non-life insurance policy that provides for a loyalty benefit, no-claim bonus or rebate in premiums”

So a cashback framed as loyalty is both counted against the cap and, for a microinsurer, subject to approval.

Above the cap, you leave the Funeral class. Clause 3.2.1 confirms that funeral benefits above the maximum “may be provided under the Risk Class (Class 1) individual and group death”, provided the policy meets the Risk class description, and its footnote records that such a policy

“would not, for example, be able to provide benefits in the form of a funeral service (in-kind benefit) as the Risk Class description only makes provision for lump sum / monetary benefits”

So above the cap you must pay cash, under a Risk-class licence. That route is not open to a microinsurer, whose Risk business is capped the same way.

The bottom line

The escalation is real, automatic and written into the standards, so you can work out the current cap yourself: take the R100,000 base and apply the Stats SA index. Just keep in mind what sits inside that cap. Riders, cashback and the accidental death multiple all count against it, and it applies per life insured per insurer, not per policy. For confirmation though – ask your PA or FSCA analyst.