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Income protection providers are to be drawn into a competition that pits service against price, Axa has warned.

Providers are struggling to sell income protection cover because of the complexity of its underwriting process affecting their administration, according to Stuart Lawson, protection marketing manager at Axa.

Mr Lawson said the most effective way to simplify the process of taking out individual income protection was to make the underwriting requirements less rigorous, increasing the risk to the provider and raising the cost to the consumer.

The biggest problem with the industry is that we are just not selling enough," he said. "There is a perception in the market that consumers find it a complicated product. I would expect the market to try to understand why that is and address it.

"The application process is more complex than for, say, life cover. Underwriting is all about understanding the risks an insurer is taking on. If you ask fewer questions you get a worse book of risk and it puts up the cost."

He added that he foresaw providers in the future competing with cheaper, more difficult to understand, products against simpler more expensive ones.

He said: "I think it is likely to come down to competition between companies that offer service and companies that offer price and I come down heavily in favour of service."

Andrew Potterton, chief medical underwriter for specialist income protection providers Unum, said the company had adjusted its risk assessment procedure in 2006 and had not yet seen premiums rise.

He said: "We would say that you do not have to take a cautious pricing structure to simplify the underwriting process.

"In the majority of questions we do not ask for a GP reports. We ask a series of questions and if we feel it has been a mature conversation we do not require medical evidence.

"People have risen to it well. We have not increased our rates or reduced them. We believe our customers because we are asking them the right questions."

David Marlow, managing director for Alexander Forbes, said he believed Mr Lawson's view was "a fair comment".

He added: "One of the benefits of group income protection over individual is that it cuts out some of the individual underwriting.

"From an adviser's point of view you need to be thinking about the client's long term payments through something like income protection, as well as something like critical illness where you get an immediate payout."