New APIL analysis of the latest Official Injury Claim (OIC) data shows that a huge number of claimants using the system are in limbo.
A staggering 364,000 claims are currently stuck in the system awaiting any kind of resolution, either positive or negative. This represents 57 per cent of all claims which have been submitted to the OIC.
Claims are now taking an average of more than nine months to settle. This is up from seven months in September 2022. Now that less complex cases are settling, delays are likely to continue to rise as an increased number of more complex claims begin to settle in the system.
At the same time, unrepresented claimants continue to face huge difficulties with navigating the system. The 61,612 claims submitted by unrepresented individuals have generated 39,725 calls to the OIC’s support centre. As a result, for every ten unrepresented claimants, more than six calls are being made to the support centre. This clearly demonstrates that the OIC is not the easy-to-use system promised by the Government.
Meanwhile, the number of road injury victims accessing justice has collapsed since the OIC was introduced. In 2022, road casualties were up 17 per cent when compared to 2020. Despite this significant increase in injuries, the number of motor injury claims fell by 25 per cent over the same period.