Whiplash claims have surged to near-record levels, costing insurers £2.5bn a year and – because they like to share the pain – normally adding £93 to YOUR annual motor insurance premium.
Now, a proportion of that expense is made up of completely justified claims from folks who’ve been injured in a road traffic accident. The difficulty is that a lot of it represents exaggerated or wholly fictitious claims from person opportunists and organized criminal gangs.
And whiplash is a growing problem, in spite of the truth we’re typically driving safer automobiles and possessing fewer accidents than in earlier years.
So just what is going on? And what can be completed to chop as considerably as attainable of that quantity being added to your premium?
Whiplash – a expanding problem
The UK is on track to submit a lot more than 840,000 motor injury claims for the year ending April 2015 – that’s 2,300 claims each and every day.
It is also an boost of 9% on the earlier year, or 200 extra claims a day.
Statistics from insurer Aviva confirm the increasing trend. It analysed the motor injury claims it received in 2014 and identified that 80% integrated whiplash, a much greater figure than in a lot of other European nations.
In France, for example, whiplash claims account for about 3% of private injury claims.
Sticking your neck out
So do UK motorists have weak necks, or is there an additional explanation for the high incidence of claims?
Many authorities blame Britain’s compensation culture. If you are involved in a vehicle accident, it’s quite effortless to lodge a claim for whiplash.
It’s even less complicated if a claims management business or personal injury lawyer submits the paperwork on your behalf – and 96% of Aviva’ personal injury claims last year were brought by third parties.
Tissue of lies
Whiplash is a well-known target for fraudsters, also, It’s tricky to diagnose due to the fact it causes harm to the soft tissue. In other words, there are no visible signs, such as cuts and bruises. And it does not show up on an x-ray.
Bogus and exaggerated claims are as a result a massive dilemma. Some firms estimate that fraudsters add £60 to the expense of each and every vehicle insurance premium.
The government has already introduced a series of measures to attempt to curb our compensation culture. It has, for example, imposed a ban on referral charges paid by claims firms, insurers and lawyers – cash that changed hands in exchange for the names of those involved in accidents.
Panel beaters
It has also cut from £1,200 to £500 the fees lawyers can charge insurers for processing fundamental, uncontested claims for compensation for minor injuries suffered in road accidents.
That is not all. From April 1, any individual attempting to claim compensation for whiplash following a automobile accident will have to get a medical report from a member of an independent panel of experts, identified as MedCo.
Practitioners who want to join the panel will have to achieve specific accreditation and be independent of any claims business.
The reform package led to a drop in the number and cost of whiplash claims, at least at very first, and motor premiums also fell. However, as injury claims have began to creep up once more, so also have premiums.
Time and motion
Some firms are as a result calling for additional alterations. Aviva, for example, desires the time limit on claims to come down from 3 years to one year.
It also suggests that the claimant’s symptoms should final longer than 3 months to qualify for a pay-out.
A lot of insurers would also choose to spend for treatment of minor soft tissue injury, rather than money compensation, to discourage fraudsters.
Of course, there’s a fine line between cracking down on opportunists and punishing genuine claimants. Can insurers walk that line? Aviva boss Maurice Tulloch says: “We are right here to support our customers when they need it, and pay genuine claims speedily.
“But we should address how to very best treat the excessive quantity of fraudulent, exaggerated and minor whiplash claims that are driving up the expense of insurance coverage.”
Overall health and efficiency
As properly as being the enemy of sincere motorists, whiplash fraudsters are adding an estimated £60 to the expense of each and every car insurance coverage premium. But they also spot a heavy burden on our NHS, according to another insurer study, this time by LV.
It calculates that bogus claims waste close to 1 million GP hours every year – time that could be much better spent with genuine sufferers.
Physicians now see a total of 116,000 situations a month exactly where they suspect the ‘patient’ is feigning or exaggerating a whiplash injury in order to claim compensation.
Dealing with fraudsters not only takes away valuable appointment time from genuine patients, but also extra surgery hours dealing with law firms and claims organizations.
Aches and strains
The strain on the NHS is clear – and it is acquiring larger. More than 40% of medical doctors see suspicious instances on a frequent basis, compared to just 26% in 2012.
And almost a third (29%) of medical doctors are witnessing a wider range of injuries linked to compensation claims than they had been 3 years ago. LV’s claims information also shows there is a developing number of suspicious circumstances where compensation is sought for head, back and psychological injuries.
In other words, post-traumatic disorders in the wake of an accident.
Martin Milliner, claims director of LV, says: “Verifying personal injury claims requires up a lot of time and areas unnecessary stress on our already stretched overall health service. The cost of dealing with fraudulent claims not only pushes up the cost of automobile insurance coverage for truthful motorists but it also hurts the public purse.”
Where to subsequent with whiplash?
