Motor Injury Claims Skyrocket Over Decade

by Stewart Douglas

Story link: Motor Injury Claims Skyrocket Over Decade

The cost of physical injury in motor insurance claims has grown at a much stronger rate than inflation over the last ten years, according to figures released today within the UK Bodily Injury Survey.

The statistics showed an almost 10% increase in claims against insurers in motor sectors for personal, bodily injury over the last decade, twice the rate of growth in the average national salary over the same period.

Additionally the figure completely outstrips inflation on most other counts, suggesting a significant trend towards claiming against insurers for the injuries sustained in car accidents, both severe and mild. Over the last two decades the costs in claims, factoring in inflation, has risen by 840% for insurers throughout the UK.

The sheer volume of claims have shown a steady 3% increase year on year throughout the decade, whilst paradoxically the number of serious road accidents causing physical injury has fallen by 19%. Analysts have suggested that this may be indicative of a rising claim culture which has seen compensation payouts rise generally across legal sectors.

Furthermore, cases in which claims were made under the value of £80,000 in respect of personal injury were up by 6.5%, whilst those in excess of £80,000 had shown a significant increase of over 10% over the same period, suggesting that costs claimed are continuing to increase year in year in line with the number of claims lodged against insurers.

Insurance industry insiders have today commented that whilst the figures are unsurprising, they are unsustainable in the long term on a pure economic basis, with awards likely to fall eventually to even out the growing inequity apparent in the claims processes.

The study was the fourth ever conducted, commissioned on behalf of the ABI and IUA within the insurance industry.