-
Posts
-
The footballers settlement would have been an insurance payout, not a state payout. I believe the forces one would have been in the region of about £150,000. But I know they have raised maximum/minimum payouts for those that lose limbs fighting for their country and probably since this guy lost his leg.
Sword is absolutely correct. Most of these types of payment are made by the organisation’s insurers rather than the organisations themselves.
The typist’s thumb claim would have been settled by the MOD’s Employer’s Liability insurer for example. However, injuries to serving soldiers are typically either not insured or are uninsurable. Thus any payment made has to come directly from the MOD’s operational budget.
In any insured damages claim there is a well established ”tarriff” of compensation payments. Whiplash injuries caused in car accidents are a good example of this, where the “quantum” of damages follows a well established pattern and is quantified under a number of well known headings.
Unfortunately the same ‘rules’ do not apply to active military personnel who are injured in the course of their duties – whether in the ‘front line’ or elsewhere.
Whilst I am entirely confident that we can all agree that this is ‘wrong’ and that the amounts paid often bear no relationship to the severity of the injury, nevertheless this is the way it is and all we can do is to lobby our (non-listening) politicians to improve the system.
Can we invite them to sprinkle towers and talk some sense into them :P
Get involved in this discussion! Log in or register now to have your say!