Commenting on the latest data received following a FOI request from the Department for Work and Pensions' Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU), which registers personal injury claims, Matthew Maxwell Scott, executive director of ACSO (Association of Consumer Support Organisations), said:
"The song remains the same for road traffic collision injury claims during this latest quarter, from July to September 2022. The number of such claims remains below 100,000 confirming the trends of the past 12 months. If this continues for the rest of 2022, we can expect to see around 370,000 RTA claims for the year, which equates to a more than 40 per cent reduction since the same period in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
"Recently published mileage statistics from the Department for Transport found that in 2021, car mileage increased by 12.2 per cent from 2020 levels, though it remains lower than before the pandemic, down 15.8 per cent compared to 2019. This would partially explain the overall fall in RTA claims during 2021, but assuming a further increase in car mileage this year, the number of RTA claims has not kept pace with recovering car use numbers.
"The sheer volume of likely missing claims provides yet more evidence that many genuinely injured people are not getting the redress they deserve. The government's Official Injury Claims portal, launched in May 2021, is still not doing its job properly and needs urgent attention if consumers are to regain confidence in the civil justice system"
Turning to other types of claims, Maxwell Scott said clinical negligence and employers liability claims all remained broadly flat during the last quarter, although there was a 10 per cent uptick in public liability claims to just over 14,000 in the period compared to the previous three months.
