As people have become better informed about their right to make a claim in the event of an accident that was somebody else’s fault, the number of accident claims has risen. Over the past three years, personal injury claims have become a more common case than ever for law firms, which has led to an increase in the number of advertisements and the level of marketing associated with injury claims – it is this which has led to more informed consumers.
A case in point is the fact that the number of personal injury claims on Britain’s roads in 2011 shot up 18% despite a fall in the number of accidents. How can this be explained? Simply by the fact that people are less inclined than ever to sit back with an injury thanks to a higher level of awareness of their right to make a claim, and rightly so too.
So how many accident claims get processed every year?
Claims figures are generally unreliable and there aren’t any figures which take into account all types of accident claim. However, the most reliable figures comes from the Department for Work and Pensions’ Compensation Recovery Unit. Compensators are required by law to notify them of every claim they receive. Figures from the Compensation Recovery Unit show that in 2010/11, there were 790,999 claims arising from road traffic accidents. That was a 52% rise compared to 2009, which can be explained by our point above surrounding awareness.
The updated record from April 2014 shows that the number of cases settled in 2013/14 was 1,016,801, 772,843 of which were road traffic accident claims. The highest number of registered cases was recorded in 2012/13, where a total of 1,048,309 cases were recorded.
So for at least three years straight, more than one million accident claims have been processed every year. The UK population as of 2013 was 64.1 million, so as of April 2013/14, roughly 1.589% of the population made a claim for compensation.
Are accident claims on the rise?
The last figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions’ were in April which showed that 1,016,801 cases were settled compared to 1,048,309 in 2012/13. It’s not known whether the 2014/15 figures will surpass this, however there’s a good chance that they’ll be mighty close. Be sure to bookmark the Compensation Recovery Unit link above for information on accident claims as it arrives.
To find out more about accident claims, call the accident claims helpline 24/7 on 0800 689 0500 or from your mobile on 0333 500 0993.
