CRU falling short as claims figures fall

A freedom of information request has revealed falling motor claims figures from the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU).

Only 93,113 motor claims were recorded in the second quarter of 2022, down from the 97,099 recorded in the first quarter – although both figures are well below the three-month average of 160,000 before the pandemic.

Matthew Maxwell Scott, chief executive of the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO), which made the request, said: “Motor claims recorded for April to June 2022, at 93,113, are slightly below the previous three months’ figure of 97,099, but more significantly are down on the equivalent period in 2020, which was the height of the Covid lockdown.

“Given there has been a bounce back in UK traffic levels since then we would expect the number of RTAs largely to mirror these, but it is simply not the case.

“We’ve now had a whole year’s data for motor claims where every quarter shows the number recorded by the CRU to be below 100,000. As the three-month average before the pandemic was around 160,000, this means some quarter of a million claims we might have expected to be recorded have disappeared.

“While people’s driving habits have changed,  one explanation must be that genuinely injured people are not claiming when they could. This might be because the new Official Injury Claims process is too complex, or simply because they don’t know about it. Ministers might count this as a success, but those with an interest in preserving access to justice will think otherwise.”