A serious question posed by Aviva’s Chief Executive Mark Wilson about the state of compensation culture affecting the United Kingdom in such matters as whiplash, fraud or exaggerated claims.
This is how he supports his statement: Last year (2013), 94% of all personal injury claims paid by Aviva in the UK were for minor injuries such as short term whiplash. Compare that to France where whiplash accounted for only 3% of motor injury claims. Do the French have stronger necks or do we here in the UK have weak necks?
Ultimately, all this fraud and exaggerated claiming affect all of us as it adds to our car insurance costs. The figures vary but it could be anything from £35 to £75 for each one of us with a car insurance policy. The fraudsters gain at our expense.
Is there a solution? Not in the very near future, it seems. What’s required is collective action by insurers, government, personal injury lawyers and claims management companies to resolve this.
The real question is do they have the appetite or will the snouts in the trough continue at our expense?
September 2014
