Warning over £5m accident insurance claims

THE compensation culture has to stop, insurers said yesterday, after it emerged that claims for slips and trips on pavements in parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire cost more than £5m in the past four years.

According to new research, 14 local authorities surveyed by the TaxPayers Alliance shelled out £5.01m for claims, while legal fees amounted to more than £5.5m.

Leeds paid out most in compensation at £1.28m, as well as £1.6m in legal fees.

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Wakefield came second, paying out £677,429 in compensation, and £635,603 in legal fees.

Hull Council came midway down the list, but paid out more in compensation and legal fees than East Riding Council, North Lincolnshire Council, North East Lincolnshire Council and Lincolnshire County Council combined.

Hull’s compensation payments amounted to £235,450 but were dwarfed by the cost of legal fees, which totalled £810,026 over the four years, according to the study by the TaxPayers Alliance.

Nine of the local authorities had legal costs higher than the compensation payout.

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At the same time the 14 authorities spent nearly £86m on pavement or walkway repairs.

The assistant director for motor, property and liability at the Association of British Insurers, James Dalton, said the Government had to tackle compensation culture.

He said: “The UK’s compensation culture is out of control which is why we are calling on the Government to act to bring down spiralling bodily injury claims and their associated legal costs.

“The Government needs to press on with tackling the compensation culture head-on by banning money paid by personal injury lawyers in return for access to people who have had accidents and reducing fixed legal costs and hourly rates substantially.”

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The national grassroots co-ordinator for the TaxPayers Alliance, Andrew Allison, said councils should react quicker to reports of damaged pavements to avoid paying out for accidents.

He said: “It is clear from this report that some councils have a far more vigorous inspection regime than others.

“While it is not in the interests of taxpayers for councils to pay out on every claim, some councils are wasting money by fighting long legal battles with claimants which are pushing up costs. If you look at Hull City Council’s figures they seem to have been fighting everything.

“Councils must ensure pavements are inspected properly, as greater expenditure on maintenance does not necessarily equate to a reduction in the number of claims and the total cost of compensation payouts.”

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In a statement Leeds Council said: “Leeds is by far the biggest council in Yorkshire so it is not surprising that the amount of claims we get are higher than in other areas.

“We strongly defend these claims where appropriate and in fact do so successfully in about 75 per cent of all cases.

“We do our best to weed out fraudulent claims to prevent this outrageous abuse of public money – money that should be spent on frontline services.

“It is a fact that legal fees are often much higher than the compensation we must pay to claimants. Unfortunately legal fees are unavoidable but where we do have to pay them they are very carefully checked and we are able to achieve reductions in many cases.”

The council also said spending on roads maintenance in the past seven years had reduced the number of claims.