2. Guidance for compensators
2.1 Recovery procedures
When you receive a claim for compensation, send form CRU1 to CRU within 14 days. This does not mean that you have accepted any liability for the accident, injury or disease.
A Certificate will be automatically issued in cases where the required mandatory information has been provided and no recoverable benefits have been identified. If this is not possible CRU will send you a form CRU4 for use when applying for a Certificate or a Certificate of NHS Charges.
If you do not have a Certificate when you are ready to settle the claim, you must apply for one by returning form CRU4. CRU will acknowledge receipt of your request. If you have not received the acknowledgement within 14 days, contact CRU immediately.
CRU will issue the Certificate within four weeks of receiving a request (see also Section 2.10 Having a Certificate renewed).
The Certificate will specify the total amount of recoverable benefits and or lump sum payments. In the case of recoverable benefits and lump sum payments, you become liable to pay CRU immediately before you pay any compensation payment.
A Certificate of NHS charges will be sent separately. Please see the separate guidance that deals specifically with the NHS Charges in Section 7.
CRU will send a copy of the Certificate to the injured person or their representative.
Help us to help you
In order for CRU to provide a prompt and accurate service it is essential that you tell CRU about claims as early as possible. If you delay sending CRU the information on form CRU1 this may cause difficulties and further delay when you request a Certificate. CRU need to notify the Department's benefit paying offices that a compensation claim has been made as soon as possible. Failure to notify CRU at the early stage of a claim for compensation may mean archived records need to be retrieved from storage and you may have to wait longer for an urgently required Certificate.
2.2 Completing form CRU1
Please complete the form as fully as possible. It will save further enquiries later on.
You must tell CRU the following information when someone claims compensation from you and you require a Certificate:
- the injured person's full name and address (if the injured person has previously been known by a different name, for example a maiden name, it would be helpful if you could include this detail);
- their date of birth;
- National Insurance number, if known;
- the date of the accident, incident or injury;
- a full description of the nature of the accident, incident, injury or disease;
- whether the accident was a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) which occurred prior to 29 January 2007;
- if the person attended an NHS hospital because of the RTA, the injury or the incident on or after 29 January 2007 (at any time for any treatment, examination etc.);
- the full name and address of the hospital(s) or trust(s) the injured person attended or was admitted to (in order of attendance);
- if you are claiming an exemption under the Road Traffic Act 1988 (section 144) you must state the category of exemption (See Para. 7.5) for RTA's prior to 29 January 2007.
- whether or not the injured person was employed at the date of incident;
- where the date of incident is before 6 April 1994, details of the injured person’s employment (if known), This will enable CRU to obtain information about Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) that may have been paid;
- the reference number you use to identify the case. If your reference number changes before the claim is settled, you should inform CRU of the new reference number;
- in order to help CRU process the claim, please tell CRU whether the claim is public liability (P), motor (M), employer (E), clinical negligence (C) or other (O);
- if a claim is registered as 'M' liability but the accident occurred during a person's employment you must notify CRU of that fact. This is because the injured person may have claimed Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit;
- in "E" liability cases if SSP was paid before 6 April 1994 the compensator must provide details of the SSP when applying for a Certificate;
- if a solicitor is acting on your behalf you must show their name, address and reference number on form CRU1. This will ensure that correspondence is sent to the correct address.
If you take over a claim from another compensator, please notify CRU in writing. Do not attach a completed form CRU 1 if one has not been submitted by the original compensator.
Failure to provide the essential information listed above could delay the issue of the Certificates.
Additional supplies of form CRU1 may be obtained by completing an iON order form and returning it to CRU by either email or fax as shown on the order form.
A rtf template version of the CRU1 is also available.
2.3 Obtaining a Certificate
A Certificate will be automatically issued in cases where the required mandatory information has been provided and no recoverable benefits have been identified. If this is not possible CRU will send you a form CRU4 for use when applying for a Certificate or a Certificate of NHS Charges.
Important: Only return form CRU4 to CRU when you are ready to settle the claim.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Employer liability cases only
Where the date of incident is before 6 April 1994 (or in disease cases where SSP may have been paid before that date) you should ask the relevant employer for details of any SSP that the injured person was paid as a direct result of the accident, injury or disease.
Complete form CRU4 to show the gross amount of SSP. Make sure you do not include any Occupational Sick Pay that may have been paid with the SSP.
The amount shown on the Certificate will include 100 per cent of SSP paid before 6 April 1991 and 80 per cent of SSP paid from 6 April 1991 to 5 April 1994.
SSP ceased to be recoverable from 6 April 1994. Details of SSP paid after this date are not required.
2.4 Urgent requests for Certificates
CRU has a legal requirement of 4 weeks to issue a Certificate but may in certain circumstances issue a Certificate urgently.
2.5 The Certificate
A Certificate cannot be treated as being valid prior to the date of the request and will remain in force until the date specified on the Certificate for that purpose (s4 (4)). The Certificate will include:
- details of the injured person's identity and where appropriate the date of the incident which gave rise to the compensation claim
- the total of each recoverable benefit paid up to a specified date
- the total amount of each recoverable lump sum payment paid
- the rate expected to be paid for a short future period if benefit is still in payment
- a note to say whether any of the above amounts or dates have been estimated
- the date the Certificate ceases to be valid
- the total amount to be repaid to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Legislation states that a compensator must apply for a Certificate prior to making a compensation payment. If the compensator settles a compensation claim without a Certificate that covers the actual date of settlement, CRU will issue a one day Certificate valid only for the date of settlement. The one day Certificate may include benefits that have not been taken into account during the negotiation process but will be recoverable. It is therefore important that you request a Certificate prior to making a compensation payment.
Important: The validity period of a Certificate varies according to the circumstances of the case.
2.6 Powers to estimate
The law allows CRU to estimate any amount, date or period specified in the Certificate (Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997, Section 5(4)) also Reg 4(1)(a) and 9(3) of the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) (Lump Sum Payments) Regulations 2008
2.7 Issue of the Certificate
CRU will send the Certificate to you, and, at the same time, will send a copy to the injured person or their representative.
Write to CRU if you have any queries about the Certificate. CRU will issue a further Certificate if necessary (see also Section 6 Reviews and Appeals).
2.8 Increase of recoverable benefits included on Certificates
After a Certificate has been issued CRU may become aware that further recoverable benefits have been paid. These benefits would have been included in the Certificate had CRU been aware of them at the time it was issued.
During the validity period of a Certificate the amount of recoverable benefit shown cannot be increased, except where the compensator has provided CRU with incorrect or insufficient information.
If recoverable benefits are inadvertently omitted from a Certificate, and a compensation payment is not made during the period of validity of that Certificate, the additional benefits will be shown on any later Certificate.
In order to give as much notice as possible of this, CRU will notify you in writing if they become aware that a future Certificate will be affected in this way.
2.9 Increase of lump sum payments included on Certificates
If CRU become aware that recoverable lump sum payments have been paid after a Certificate has been issued, CRU will issue a revised Certificate to include the lump sum payment amount and the revised Certificate will supersede any previous Certificate.
2.10 Having the Certificate renewed
The compensator should only request renewal Certificates when they are ready to settle the claim. Persistent requests for renewal Certificates when the claim is not ready to be settled generates extra work and expense for everyone and may cause delays.
CRU cannot issue a new Certificate until the current one expires. Where it is clear that the case is very near settlement and that the current Certificate will expire before the settlement takes place you may request a renewal Certificate. Renewal Certificates will be issued within four weeks of the expiry of the current Certificate.
2.11 What to do after the Certificate is issued
Please tell CRU as soon as possible when you know the outcome of the claim even if it is unsuccessful. Form CRU102 should be used for this purpose. Failure to do this may result in you incurring costs for the retrieval of files from storage. CRU will not pay the retrieval costs where a compensator has not informed them of the date the compensation payment was made in final discharge of the claim.
If notification has not been received about the outcome of a compensation claim after two years, automatic follow up action will be taken to obtain the result of the claim. A form CRU250 will be issued and should be completed and returned immediately.
When compensation has been paid you MUST send CRU the form CRU102, together with a cheque for the amount specified on the Certificate. Cheques should be crossed and made payable to "Department for Work and Pensions only" (in Northern Ireland "Social Security Agency only"). Do not send a cheque without attaching form CRU102.
Please ensure the correct CRU reference number is shown on the remittance advice note, along with your claim reference number and if possible the incident/accident date or the name of the injured person.
You may send one cheque in respect of any number of claims. In order that CRU may allocate a bulk payment correctly to each case, the cheque must be accompanied by a schedule detailing all the CRU reference numbers and the amount due for each individual case. The total amount on the schedule should be checked to ensure the cheque is for the correct amount. If you choose this option you should bear in mind that the liability to pay DWP arises immediately before making the compensation payment, and the CRU may enforce this debt through the courts at any point from the fifteenth day following the date the compensation was paid.
2.12 Penalty for default
DWP may take action against you to secure payment of the recoverable amount if:
- you make a compensation payment but do not apply for a Certificate; and/or
- you fail to repay the specified amount.
If you obtain a Certificate and make the appropriate compensation payment but fail to pay the DWP, CRU will send you a reminder. Payment must be made immediately you receive the reminder. If your records show that you have already sent CRU a payment, you should contact CRU immediately providing all the relevant details, (for example, the cheque number or BACs reference number and the date it was cashed). If you have not sent CRU a payment because you do not agree with the amount on the Certificate, then you may request a review (see Section 6).
In accordance with Section 7-(3)(4)(5) of the 1997 Act, and Regulation 11 of the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) (Lump Sum Payments) Regulations 2008, failure to pay DWP the amount shown on the Certificate may result in legal action being taken against you.
Please note: The Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997, Section 6 Liability to pay the Secretary of State amount of benefits, and Section 7 Recovery of payments due under Section 6. Also Regulation 10 Liability to pay Secretary of State amount of lump sum payments and Regulation 11 Recovery of payment due under Regulation 10.
