Doctors report an explosion in new types of vehicle injury compensation

Doctors are seeing a wider variety of claims linked to vehicle injury compensation than three years ago, triggering concerns that opportunists are attempting to avoid scrutiny or get higher payouts.

Back, neck or psychological injuries are on the rise, with 29% of doctors saying they are seeing much more of these types of vehicle injuries than three years ago, according to a survey of GPs from LV=.

Meanwhile, whiplash claims continues to cause concerns, with 42% of doctors reporting seeing more spurious injury claims compared to just 26% three years ago.

It means that doctors see around 116,000 suspect injury claims every month.

LV commissioned PCP International to conduct research among 500 licenced GPs spread across the UK between 8 and 16 January 2015.

The study also highlighted the problem that doctors have in assessing injuries.

72% of doctors said they would be better equipped for assessment if they had an accident report rather than having to rely on claimants or what the solicitor tells them.

Martin Milliner, LV= claims director, said: “While insurers, working with government, have made good progress in the crackdown on fraud, it appears that fraudsters are trying new tactics to beat the system and claim compensation they are not entitled to.

“Those tempted to make a claim when they do not have an injury should think again as making a fraudulent claim could lead to a hefty fine or prison sentence.”

In order to crack down on dubious vehicle injury claims, the government is setting up MedCo which should go live on April 1.

Vehicle injury claimants will be randomnly sent to accredited MedCo doctors. It should therefore improve the quality of GPs checking injuries. Furthermore, it is hoped the randomness of selection should flush out any fraudsters trying to rig the system.

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