Anyone who has suffered due to medical negligence can claim damages. If medical malpractice has affected your quality of life you deserve compensation. You can also make a claim for your suffering, pain and amenity loss. Also, you are entitled to receive a recompense if such negligence has affected your hobbies. You can make a claim by hiring a professional lawyer that you know. Ask friends or search ‘
Medical Negligence Solicitors Near Me’.Your compensation amount depends on a number of facts. Level of negligence, its impact, pain and suffering that you have gone through. But the most common question claimants often ask is about the taxes on medical negligence.
Taxes on Medical Negligence Settlement
Courts award compensation to people when there is proven medical malpractice. The intention is to put back the plaintiff in a comfortable situation. This is a position that they would have if the malpractice has never occurred. The court can award a lump sum amount or ensure regular payments as compensation.
In the UK, the compensation that a claimant receives for medical negligence is exempt from taxes. However, you may lose some social benefits when you receive compensation.
How Compensation Can Affect Your Benefits
You may not be entitled to receive some state benefits after getting a recompense. But this is in case you receive more than a certain amount as compensation. It is when your capital assets or savings reached to an amount more than £6,000.
Benefits Affected by the Compensation
These benefits include housing, Employment and Support Allowance, Job Seeker’s Allowance, Income Support and Universal Credit. Other benefits that may also be affected are dental treatment, eyesight tests and free prescriptions. State-funded care may also be affected either in a nursing home/ residential or at your home.
But, a claimant can preserve his or her entitlement to state benefits. You can simply put the received compensation under a Personal Injury Trust.
Compensation You Can Claim
Now that we know the claimant wouldn’t have to pay taxes. Let’s find out on which grounds you can claim compensation.
General Damages
General damages provide compensation for suffering and pain. Hence, the amount you get depends on how many injuries you have sustained. Also, this includes changes that have altered your quality of life. You need medical records and impartial medical experts to prove such injuries. This helps to verify that an ordinary doctor or surgeon wouldn’t have committed such negligence.
Special Damages
We can also say these are the additional losses that the claimant has suffered. These include financial losses that the plaintiff has received due to medical malpractice. This loss
count starts from the day of the suffering and also includes any future losses. Such damages may include the following losses.
- Specialist equipment cost
- Change of accommodation
- Adaptation to accommodation
- Medication and treatment costs
- Parking expenses
- Travel costs
- Care needed
- Loss of earning
Average Medical Negligence Claim Amount
Claimants usually want to know how much compensation they can receive. But this is really a tricky question to answer as every case has its own merits. No two people or their cases are the same in any manner. You may get a recompense ranging from £1000 to more than £200, 00. But then again it all depends on how suffering and loss you have had.
