Motorists or passengers who suffer whiplash injuries have had their compensation slashed. Those who are injured for up to three months are now eligible to claim only a flat sum of £260 in compensation. That’s £20 for each week of suffering the pain and physical limitations that whiplash injuries cause. It will not go very far.
Compensation means that someone else was negligent and the injury should never have happened. For people who cannot pick up and hold their children, miss out on hobbies and exercise, which are both so critical to health and wellbeing, and struggle to sleep properly, the new levels of compensation are derisory and offensive.
These changes will be news to many readers. 89 per cent of Britons have no idea about them, according to research by Consumer Intelligence.
Readers will not plan to be injured, no-one does. But should it happen, the recompense will be measly, and insurance premiums will still be high. Insurers have a poor track record of passing on savings from reforms. Last year the cost of injury claims to car insurers fell by almost a quarter while the cost of premiums fell by just eight per cent at the start of 2021.
Neil McKinley
President
Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL)