Commenting on the latest Compensation Recovery Unit figures, published today by the Government (DWP), Matthew Maxwell Scott, executive director of the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) said:
“The data goes yearly to the end of March 2020, so there is no opportunity to see the full impact of the pandemic on claims, especially motor claims, which we would expect to have dropped significantly as a result of the lockdown. What it does underline is the continuing long term reduction in motor-related injury claims, from a high of nearly 830,000 in 2011-12, to just over 650,000 last year (to March 2020).
Over a ten year period, all claims have fallen with the exception of clinical negligence, although more recently, clinical negligence claims have fallen year on year since 2015.
That long term declining trend across most if not all classes of claim underlines our view that the UK is not in the grip of a rampant compensation culture, which some policymakers and corporate vested interests would have us believe.
It remains to be seen what sort of impact the Covid-19 pandemic will have on the numbers, but they are likely to fall significantly between March and June, given the reduction in traffic. Figures from Transport for London show that at the peak of the lockdown at the end of March, traffic was at 50% of normal levels, though that increased to 78% by the beginning of June. Traffic congestion in West Midlands peaked at about 75% prior to the lockdown, before dropping to 20% between April – June.
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