Car crash: Fewer than half the number of claims pre-Covid
The number of personal injury (PI) claims registered with the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) has fallen to a new low this year – 14% below even the worst of the Covid period.
And the number of motor claims has also fallen to its lowest.
The latest CRU figures show there were 103,556 claims in the second quarter of 2025, down from 106,113 in the first quarter – which had been the worst since quarterly reporting was introduced in 2018.
In the same quarter in 2019, the figure was 193,862, which fell to 120,926 in the second quarter of 2020, which was when the country was in lockdown.
This year, there were 72,534 motor claims between 1 April and 30 June, less than half of the number of the same quarter in 2019, before Covid and the Official Injury Claim portal.
The 10,306 employer’s liability and 14,091 public liability claims were broadly in line with the last couple of years.
The figures were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Association of Consumer Support Organisations.
Executive director Matthew Maxwell Scott said: “A record low number for injury claims on our roads might sound like good news but with traffic volumes largely back to where they were before the pandemic, it’s likely that ever higher barriers to getting justice are the real story.
“Reforms have made it harder and harder for injured people to be compensated when they are hurt through no fault of their own and paying for treatment and recovery instead falls on them, their families, their employers and the NHS.”
Mr Maxwell Scott said the numbers also showed how the “soaring cost” of motor insurance in recent years could not be laid at the feet of injured people.
He pointed to recent research from the Financial Conduct Authority, which showed that while bodily injury costs went up by just 7% between 2019 and 2023, well below the rate of inflation for the period, all other claims costs went up by 40%.
“This is where the government’s motor insurance taskforce should be focusing its attention. Insurers need to show they are getting their repair bills down, and vehicle theft and fraud need prioritising by the police and courts.
“We urge ministers to resist siren voices from the insurance industry urging the government to make claiming even harder for the genuinely injured. Injured people should not have to bear the brunt of rising premiums.”
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