Even though whiplash was a common injury due to road accidents since about 50 years , it is only after the 1990′s the statistics related to whiplash and the whiplash payout have been accounted for with a degree of accuracy not known and in the 2000′s with a high degree of accuracy. The Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) is the administration responsible for taking note of all the personal injury claims made since the 1990′s in the United Kingdom.
Number of Claims Made (source: CRU)
The total number of claims for the whiplash payout from 2000 to 2010 has seen a huge inflation. The number of whiplash cases per year in 2000-2005(average) was about 2.75 lakh. In 2006 it was about 3.25 lakhs and during 2009 it was about 4.6 lakh which is equal to one in every 135 in UK. This aberration of 12-13 % annually is certainly a high number and a big cause of concern.
It is also estimated that more than 70% of the motor insurance personal injury claims are due to whiplash related injuries and it is said to account for 20% of every motor insurer’s premium. The increasing number whiplash injury claims is also an important reason for the increase in the cost of motor insurance in the recent years. The common belief that many of these whiplash injury claims are frauds, adds to the cause of the worry.
The common reason for the increase in the whiplash injury claims being made in UK is the absence of major restrictions compared to other countries like Scotland, Ireland and Germany. Fraud is another factor leading to the increase. Staged accidents are becoming common place. Perhaps “Cash for Crash” is the best used phrase to summarize these frauds.
The rigorous marketing strategies used by some of the personal injury management companies since they earn commission from the claims. Many of these companies are known to help frauds in claiming the whiplash payout even on case there is not even any whiplash injury.