The
Compensation Recovery Scheme exists for two reasons:
• to make sure that public money is not used as compensation where someone else is at fault
• to make sure that people who make personal injury claims are not compensated twice
If you’ve been involved in a serious accident, you’ll know how much it can affect your life.
It’s tough – both on you and your family.
Before the accident, you might have been able to meet your household bills each month with money to spare. After the accident, just covering the essentials might be all you can hope to do.
You might not even be able to do that.
But if you
make a successful personal injury claim (and your solicitor has done their job properly), you’ll get compensated for all the losses you suffered.
So you’ll have received money from both the defendant and the state – your compensation and your benefits.
You’ll have been paid twice.
In those cases, the social security people can take back the benefits they have paid to you. If a deduction is taken from your compensation, you’ll get a statement telling you how it was calculated.
It’s not nice to see deductions being made to your compensation award before you receive it. But in reality, the scheme should have little impact on you.
If your claim has been prepared properly, and you claim for everything you are entitled to, the Compensation Recovery Scheme won’t affect you at all.