Councils need to be vigilant as claims look set to rise
Local councils are often lambasted in the media for the amount of compensation claims that are paid out every year.
Despite East Sussex council paying out £1.4 million in compensation councillors have defended the amount being paid out saying they spend a lot of time weeding out the bogus claims and a lot of the time it is compensation paid out by the insurance companies.
What is possibly most shocking is the fact that £500,000 of the £1.4 million paid was to no win no fee lawyers to cover their legal fees.
The Taxpayers alliance has slammed the figures saying that the amount paid out is a combination of council incompetence and opportunistic compensation claimants.
Highest council claims
The East Sussex County Council made up most of the money paid out with claims ranging from its pay-outs ranged from as little as £8 to a driver to have his wheel repaired after going over a pothole, to £67,400 for someone who tripped and fell.
Two other claimants gained pay-outs of £61,250 and £49,500 for "ingestion of a poisonous substance".
Chief executive at the TaxPayers' Alliance, Matthew Elliott, said: "These councils must exercise caution when it comes to pay-outs, and make sure taxpayers' generosity is not abused.
Martin Fitzgerald, spokesman for ESCC, said: "All compensation claims are fully investigated by the council."
Whilst Wealden District Council's chief finance officer, Steve Linnett, said: "The council operates diverse services and it is not surprising a number of compensation claims are made."
The figures reveled surrounding East Sussex's £1.4 million paid out in claims last year may well have been fueled by what some call opportunistic claiming spurred on by the recession.
The recent story that Baby P's real father is claiming against the local council, which he believes failed to get his son out of danger, is a perfect example of a claim which may not have been made five years ago.
Council should hold responsibility
Sarah Erwin-Jones, a partner in Browne Jacobson's social care team, warned that the last 18 months had seen a significant increase in the number of claimants coming forward."
She went on to say: "we are getting an increasing number of cases where people say that the local authority should have known that they were being abused or neglected in the family home and should have taken steps to removed them from that environment at an earlier stage than they did."
The increased amount of claims being made from councils may well rise as more and more read stories of slips and trips receiving thousands in compensation.
This means that many local councils will have to remain vigilant against any possible bogus claims.
Not only that with more focus on social workers after a number of high profile cases, councils will have to keep better recorded of visits so that they can present their cases better if claims are being made.
Erwin-Jones provides one final warning saying "The new generation of social workers need to be prepared for the inevitable risk that they may be called upon to give evidence in future civil claims."
Updated on 8/23/2009