Bogus Personal Injury Claims On The Rise?

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26
Jul

work injury claim formInsurers are detecting more fraudulent insurance claims than ever before according to figures released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The ABI says that last year more than 2,000 dishonest insurance claims worth more than £16 million were detected every week, with many claims coming from bogus personal injury compensation claims.

Nick Starling, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health, says:

“Reducing fraud remains an ongoing battle for the insurance industry. Our honest customers rightly object to having to pay higher premiums to subsidise the fraudulent minority, which is why insurers continue to up their game in the war on the cheats.

In a strong attack on bogus claims, Mr Starling continues:

“Whether claiming against a third party for bogus personal injury or on their own insurance, fraudsters are more likely than ever to get caught, leading to more expensive and harder to obtain insurance and credit and the possibility of a criminal record.”

Some of the 8,500 dishonest liability claims exposed involved bogus personal injuries such as a man who claimed he had fractured his hand after falling over a pothole in the street; when in fact he had sustained the injury after he punched a wall during a domestic dispute; which was a well reported case.

Another personal injury claim identified by the ABI included a young woman who claimed to have tripped over a loose pavement, when in fact her injuries were sustained from jumping down a flight of stairs.

Another personal injury claim identified in the report includes a head injury allegedly sustained by falling over, which was later revealed to have been sustained by a man after being hit on the head by a baseball bat during a fight.

ABI figures show that in 2009 there were 122,000 fraudulent insurance claims uncovered which is up 14 per cent on 2008.

The value of these claims, at £840 million, rose by a significant 14 per cent on the previous year.

A total of four per cent of all claims by cost were fraudulent. This is similar to 2008, although double the figure of five years ago.

The overall rise in dodgy insurance claims is seen as being due to a combination of insurers becoming increasingly sophisticated in their fraud detection, as well as an increase in the number of people submitting misleading claims due to the economic downturn.

With regards to personal injury claims, in particular, the ABI has identified a rise in the number of people attempting to claim against their local authority for injuries they said they sustained in accidents in the street.

The ABI is the voice of the insurance and investment industry with members constituting over 90 per cent of the insurance market in the UK and 20 per cent across the EU.

The ABI report follows a report by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) earlier this month warning consumers about what has become known as ‘third party capture’, a practice which involves insurance companies settling a claim directly with a personal injury victim of a policyholder, without the victim receiving independent legal advice.

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