ILC ARTICLE

Latest data reveals state of OIC portal

9th January 2023

Article supplied by Insurance DataLab

The latest data from the Official Injury Claim (OIC) portal has revealed that more than 350,000 claims have been submitted to the portal since launch.

Up until the end of September 2022, approximately 24,000 claims per month entered the new portal, but it is important to note than many RTA claims – such as those valued at more than £5,000 – are still being submitted to the original Ministry of Justice Portal run by Claims Portal Ltd.

Indeed, over the most recent 12 months of OIC data, the volume of RTA claims across the two portals has averaged almost 32,000 per month, according to the latest analysis by Insurance DataLab.

This means that a little under 75% of RTA claims have been submitted to the new OIC portal, with the remaining one quarter of claims processed through the original portal.

Unrepresented Claims Fall Short

The latest OIC data also reveals an interesting picture around the number of claims being presented by litigants in person.

Despite being launched to allow individuals to process their own claims, almost 320,000 of the claims submitted to the OIC portal still have some form of legal representation.

This means that less than 9% of claims submitted to the OIC portal until the end of September 2022 have been entirely unrepresented.

Of the remaining 91% of claims, the vast majority have been represented by law firms – accounting for almost 74% of represented claims.

Meanwhile, alternative business structures represent a little over 26% of claims, while just 0.3% of claims are represented by claims management companies and other types of firms.

There is little difference, however, in the settlements being paid out for represented and unrepresented claims.

For litigants in person, the average non-tariff settlement is £925, compared to £891 for represented claims, while the average tariff amounts are £691 and £693 respectively.

Tariff uplifts are, however, higher for represented claimants at an average of £214, compared to £153 for unrepresented claimants.

Mixed-tariff Claims Make up Majority of Cases

Over the three months to the end of September 2022, the majority of claims referred to the OIC involved whiplash, psychological and physical injury, with a total of 21,791 cases.

This means that mixed-tariff claims were the most frequent type of case reported to the OIC, accounting for more than two-thirds of claims, with a further 18,691 claims relating to whiplash and other physical injury, and 5,140 relating to a claim with multiple injuries.

Additionally, there were 12,313 whiplash only claims and a further 7,475 claims that involved whiplash and a minor psychological claim, making a total of almost 19,800 tariff-only claims.

Non-tariff claims, meanwhile, totalled just 2,309 claims, with 1,731 of these relating to physical injury without whiplash, and a further 578 also involving a psychological element.

There were also a further 68 claims that did not fall under any of these categories as the claimant was still awaiting medical assessment.