Significant cost savings are emerging for insurance providers in respect of personal injury claims and these savings should translate to lower insurance premiums for consumers and businesses, according to Injuries Board CEO, Patricia Byron.
In terms of claim trends specific to county Mayo, InjuriesBoard.ie data shows that 162 awards were made by InjuriesBoard.ie to claimants in Mayo in 2010 (196 in 2009 ) and compensation for claimants in Mayo totalled €4.9m in 2010 (€5m in 2009 )
On a national level, preliminary year-end data from InjuriesBoard.ie shows that compensation totalling €187 million was awarded in 2010 in respect of 8,381 personal injury claimants. The numbers show a €30m (13.8 per cent ) reduction in the value of awards since 2008 despite claims volumes increasing to 26,964 (nine per cent ) over the same period.
The trends reflect a change in the composition of claims and in particular a 10 per cent reduction in the volume of higher value, employer liability claims, in 2010. Claims across motor and public liability (typically of lower value ) increased by six per cent and eight per cent in the same period. These increases have been more than offset by the decline in workplace claims, reducing the average 2010 award by four per cent to €22,271.
These reductions, taken together with a recent initiative by the Injuries Board to reduce its fees to respondents by €200 (19 per cent ) and to claimants by €5 (10 per cent ), should have a positive impact on insurance premiums for consumers.
“Our aim is to fully compensate accident victims but to reduce processing costs,” said Ms Byron. “This should mean savings of up to €205 per claim for insurers in 2011. This is in addition to existing annual savings of up to €100m arising from the board’s non-adversarial model. We believe it is incumbent on insurers to pass on these benefits to hard pressed consumers and businesses rather than constantly flagging reasons why premiums should increase.
“Another factor facilitating lower insurance premiums is a reduction in the number of workplace accident claims coming to the board, not least due to lower employment in the economy, especially in sectors like construction and manufacturing,” she added. “In addition, despite severe weather conditions in the first half of January 2010 we have not seen a surge of public liability claims, as some had predicted. In fact our data indicates that there were fewer public liability claims in January 2010 than in January 2009.”
