Personal injury claims have significantly declined since the pre-pandemic baseline in 2019.
Employers Liability claims drop by 10%
The Claims Portal Company recently released Portal dashboards for December 2024 - completing the data for the full calendar year and permitting the calculation of the number of both employers (EL) and public liability (PL) claims and permitting a comparison with the previous year.
A total of 24,836 EL and 33,858 PL claims were intimated in 2024, translating into monthly averages of 2,023 (EL) and 2,820 (PL) respectively. This compares to monthly averages of 2,302 (EL) and 3,086 (PL) seen in 2023, which in turn translates into year-on-year reductions of 10% (EL) and 8.6% (PL).
The Portal Company data captures lower value personal injury claims typically allocated to the fast-track. Data previously released by the Department of Work and Pensions in May 2024of all personal injury claims registered with the Compensation Recovery Unit , covered the period up to the 31st March 2024. This showed largely unchanged volumes of EL claims compared to the previous year. The impact of claims inflation in increasing the value of claims and taking them outside the financial limits of the fast-track may be a contributing factor behind the reduction of claims intimated through the Portal.
Overall, personal injury claims have dipped markedly since the pre-pandemic baseline in 2019 with EL claims down by over a third and PL claims by over a quarter. The reasons behind the reductions are multi-factorial but are believed to include both a decline in the number of claimant personal injury firms and claims management companies, safer workplaces and an increased focus on larger scale class actions which include both diesel emissions claims against automotive manufacturers and claims for mis-sold car finance.
Authors: Peter Forshaw, Jane Price
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