Thousands of victims will be DENIED compensation for whiplash because of law change

Unions and Labour are warning that hundreds of thousands of victims will be denied compensation for whiplash and other injuries.

This is because they are changing who can get free legal help for such claims.

The government estimates that 133,000 people will miss out on a payout for injuries that aren’t their fault.

But research by Unison suggests it could be as many as three times that number.

The Government says they are trying to tackle a “compensation culture”.

As part of its package of reforms, the Government intends to raise the small claims limit from £1,000 to £5,000 for road traffic accident-related personal injury claims, and to £2,000 for other personal injury claims.

Gloria De Piero says even more could be affected by the changes (Getty Images Europe)

This would bring many more claims, including whiplash claims, within a regime where legal costs are not usually awarded to the successful party, meaning that many more claimants would probably conduct their claim without legal representation.

The Government considers that the reforms would lead to savings of about £1.1bn and expects this to be passed on to motorists, resulting in an average saving per motor insurance premium of £35.

Opponents of the Government’s proposals dispute the figures and consider it unfair that the reforms would reduce the compensation payable to genuine claimants, and leave victims to conduct claims without legal advice.

There are no guarantees that savings will be passed on, only references by Ministers to ‘promises’ and the motor insurance market being ‘very competitive’.

When fees were introduced for employment tribunal claims there was a 90% drop off.

The Government claims the reforms would lead to savings of £1.1bn (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Labour MP Gloria de Piero said: “It would be bad enough if 133,000 people lost access to justice as the Government estimates, but our research shows that nearly three times that number could be affected.

“It’s just not good enough to allow this many workers to lose out to the insurance fatcats.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority has a dedicated team to assess claims as quickly as possible and we reduced the average wait by 122 days last year.