One in four employees who enroll in supplemental benefits never actually claims them, Human Resources Director reports — a utilization gap that turns budgeted spend into write-offs and raises questions about how employers communicate voluntary offerings after open enrollment closes.

The figure matters for two HR decisions at once. First, benefits budgeting: premiums or employer contributions for unused programs still cost money, and finance teams increasingly ask benefits leaders to demonstrate take-up, not just enrollment. Second, vendor management: carriers and voluntary-benefits platforms that show persistent non-use among enrolled populations may warrant renegotiation or replacement at renewal.

Why do enrolled employees skip claims?

The headline statistic points to a gap between signing up and using a benefit. Industry analysis of similar utilization patterns consistently identifies several recurring causes, and the new figure suggests employers should test each one against their own data:

• Awareness decay. Employees choose supplemental products — such as accident, hospital indemnity, critical illness or identity-protection plans — during a concentrated open-enrollment window, then forget the coverage exists months later.
• Frictionful claims processes. If filing a claim requires digging up policy details, contacting a third-party administrator or navigating an unfamiliar portal, many enrollees never start.
• Unclear triggers. Supplemental plans often pay out only after specific events. Employees who experience a qualifying event may not connect it to their coverage.
• Life changes. Employees who switch roles, relocate or experience family changes may lose track of benefits they elected a year or two earlier.

What should employers measure now?

The one-in-four figure gives benefits teams a benchmark. The immediate move is to request utilization data — claims filed per enrolled participant — from every supplemental-benefits carrier, broken down by product line and employee segment. Enrollment counts alone no longer tell the story.

From there, HR can compare its own rates against the benchmark. If a specific product shows non-use at or above 25% among enrollees, that is a candidate for:

• A targeted communications campaign tied to real-life claim scenarios rather than policy language.
• A claims-process audit: how many steps, which forms, what turnaround.
• A renewal-time decision on whether the product earns its place in the portfolio.

Does this change the benefits-communication playbook?

The figure suggests yes. Communication concentrated at enrollment appears insufficient to drive use. A year-round cadence — short, scenario-based reminders at moments when benefits become relevant — addresses the awareness decay that likely drives much of the non-use.

Managers and people leaders also play a role. Claims questions typically surface in everyday conversations, not HR tickets, so equipping front-line managers with basic information about supplemental offerings can shorten the distance between an event and a claim.

What is the financial exposure?

For employees, unclaimed supplemental benefits mean money left on the table after payroll deductions. That is a fairness issue HR should surface honestly: an employee paying for hospital indemnity coverage and never filing after a qualifying hospital stay has effectively funded a product that delivered nothing.

For employers, the exposure depends on who pays. In purely employee-paid voluntary plans, non-use erodes perceived value and trust, which shows up in engagement surveys and turnover conversations. In plans with employer contributions, unused benefits are direct budget leakage.

Either way, a 25% non-use rate among enrollees signals that the portfolio's value story is weaker on paper than in practice.

What comes next?

As benefits leaders prepare for the next open-enrollment cycle, the Human Resources Director figure gives them a concrete utilization test to apply: any supplemental product that cannot demonstrate meaningful claims activity among its enrolled population — at rates comfortably better than three out of four — will face harder questions at renewal.