How much compensation can I claim?

How a payout is built up

A UK personal injury award has two heads of loss:

General damages — compensation for the injury itself (pain, suffering, loss of amenity). Set with reference to the Judicial College Guidelines, current 17th edition, plus comparable case law.
Special damages — every measurable financial loss caused by the injury, past and future. These often exceed general damages, especially where you are off work for months.

General damages — by body part

Injury	Range
Minor back strain (full recovery within 2 yrs)	£2,990 – £9,630
Moderate back, ongoing symptoms	£14,300 – £32,420
Severe back with permanent loss	£38,780 – £85,470
Wrist fracture, full recovery	£4,310 – £11,820
Loss of part of finger	£3,950 – £37,210
Loss of hand	£96,160 – £109,650
Moderate ankle injury	£14,210 – £27,450
Severe leg injury	£42,690 – £141,150
Moderate brain injury	£52,550 – £282,010
Severe (very) brain injury	£303,830 – £435,150
Industrial deafness (moderate)	£14,900 – £30,490
Loss of sight in one eye	£54,830 – £65,710
Moderately severe psychiatric / PTSD	£21,730 – £62,700
Asbestos — mesothelioma	£75,000 – £135,000+
HAVS — moderate	£8,640 – £18,950

Special damages — what counts

Lost earnings, past and future (calculated net of tax and NI).
Loss of pension contributions and benefits.
Private medical treatment, physiotherapy and counselling.
Care and assistance from family members at the Housecroft v Burnett commercial-rate-discounted figures.
Aids, equipment, prosthetics and home adaptations.
Travel to medical appointments and treatment.
Loss of congenial employment, where the injury forces a career change.
Cost of case management or rehabilitation programmes.

Worked example — a moderate back injury

A 35-year-old warehouse picker on £32,000 a year suffers a prolapsed disc, returns to lighter duties after nine months and is left with intermittent lower-back pain. A typical settlement might be:

General damages — £20,000
Past lost earnings (9 months net at ~£2,100/mth) — £18,900
Future loss of earning capacity (Smith v Manchester) — £12,000
Treatment, travel, care and equipment — £4,500

Total — around £55,400. The success fee under a CFA would be capped at 25% of general damages plus past losses (£20,000 + £18,900 = £38,900), so up to £9,725.

Why your payout will be unique

Two people with identical injuries can receive very different settlements depending on age, occupation, dependants, pre-existing conditions and how the injury affects their specific life and earning capacity. The figures above are starting points only — for an indication on your facts, speak to a regulated personal-injury solicitor.

Tax and benefits

UK personal injury compensation is tax-free under section 329AA of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 (now ITTOIA 2005). It can however affect means-tested benefits — a Personal Injury Trust is normally set up to ringfence the award.

Interim payments

Where liability is admitted (or the court is satisfied it is highly likely to be), CPR Part 25 allows you to apply for an interim payment on account of damages. Interim payments can fund private treatment, lost wages and home adaptations long before the final award. There is no limit on the number of applications, provided each interim does not exceed a reasonable proportion of the likely final award.

Lump sum versus periodical payments

For catastrophic claims (brain injury, paralysis, amputation), the court will often order part of the award as a Periodical Payments Order ("PPO") under the Damages Act 1996. A PPO pays a guaranteed annual sum for life, indexed to ASHE 6115 (carer earnings), removing investment risk. The remainder is paid as a lump sum. PPOs typically cover future care and case management.

How the multiplier works

Future losses (lost earnings, care costs) are calculated by multiplying the annual loss (the multiplicand) by a multiplier taken from the Ogden Tables. The multiplier reflects the claimant's age, expected working life or life expectancy, and the assumed rate of return on the lump sum (the discount rate, currently +0.5% in England & Wales since January 2025). A 30-year-old earning £35,000 net facing 35 years of career loss can comfortably exceed £700,000 on the future-loss head alone.

Smith v Manchester and Blamire awards

Where a claimant has returned to work but is at a disadvantage on the open labour market, courts award a lump sum (a Smith v Manchester award) — typically 6 months' to 2 years' net earnings. Where future loss is too speculative for a multiplier calculation, a Blamire award covers the broader uncertainty.

Recovery of benefits and NHS treatment costs

Under the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997, the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) recovers state benefits paid in respect of the accident from the defendant's award. NHS treatment costs are also recovered under the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003. These recoveries do not reduce the claimant's net award — they are deducted from specific heads (lost earnings; medical expenses) by statutory formula.

Bereavement and Fatal Accidents Act claims

A fatal workplace accident gives rise to two parallel claims: a Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 claim on behalf of the deceased's estate, and a Fatal Accidents Act 1976 claim on behalf of dependants. The statutory bereavement award is fixed at £15,120(May 2024 onwards). Dependency claims compensate for the deceased's lost financial support and services to the family, calculated by multiplier on the same Ogden basis.

The 25% success-fee cap

Under the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, a solicitor's success fee on a personal-injury CFA cannot exceed 25% of general damages plus past losses, net of any CRU deduction. Future losses are protected from the success fee — a vital protection for catastrophic claimants who depend on the future-loss element to fund decades of care.

Sources & citations

Last reviewed 2026-04-14