Carers play a vital role in ensuring that individuals get the treatment, support, and care they need. The role is physically demanding, so accidents and injuries can sometimes unfortunately occur. But, if a care worker is injured and it wasn’t their fault, they may be eligible to begin the care worker injury claims process.
Key Takeaways
- Employers are responsible for managing challenges and risks that care workers may encounter whilst working.
- If you have been injured at work as a care worker, you should report the incident immediately and seek medical attention.
- The care worker injury claims time limit is 3 years, commencing from the date of the accident.
- If an individual in a care home attacks a care worker, then a criminal injury claim can potentially be made.
- Our panel of solicitors can take on your care worker injury claim on a No Win No Fee basis.
You shouldn’t have to suffer due to your employer’s negligent actions. Get the justice you deserve today, and contact us for free:
- Call 0800 408 7825
- Fill out our Contact Us form
- Message a member of our team directly using the chat box on the screen.
Jump To A Section
- What Are Care Worker Injury Claims?
- Can I Claim For A Care Worker Injury?
- What Care Worker Accident Compensation Can I Get?
- What Should I Do After Being Injured As A Care Worker?
- Claiming After Being Attacked Whilst Working As A Carer
- How Can Public Interest Lawyers Help Me Claim Care Worker Injury Compensation?
- More Information
What Are Care Worker Injury Claims?
Care worker injury claims are when care workers begin the legal process for compensation (a financial payment) after suffering an injury that wasn’t their fault whilst working.
Examples of how accidents could potentially occur when working as a carer include:
- Understaffing – the employer failed to put a sufficient number of staff on a shift, which meant that the staff had heavier patient loads and more difficult manual handling tasks to complete. From the lack of support and overexertion, a care worker suffered a musculoskeletal back injury.
- Incorrect manual handling techniques – the employer failed to provide a care worker with the appropriate manual handling training. As a result of this, the care worker used an unsafe lifting technique when moving a bed bound resident, and suffered a hernia.
- Lack of PPE – the employer failed to provide staff with safety syringes that have built-in guards. Due to this, a care worker suffered a needlestick injury.
If you believe that your employer breached their duty in a similar way, please contact us today, as you could very well be eligible for carer injury compensation.
To succeed, the claimant (the care worker making the claim) must prove that their injury was caused by their employer’s negligent actions. Compensation in care worker injury claims can be awarded for not just the injury that’s been suffered but also for other losses, such as lost earnings and medical expenses.
Can I Claim For A Care Worker Injury?
You may be eligible to make a carer injury compensation claim if you can show that negligence occurred. This means proving that:
- Your employer owed you a duty of care at the time of the incident.
- Your employer failed to uphold their duty of care.
- As a result of this, you were injured.
You may ask, ‘What duty of care does my employer owe me?’ Well, there are several laws that set their responsibilities out:
- The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states that all employers must take reasonable steps to ensure employee safety in the workplace. Reasonable steps include conducting regular risk assessments on the workplace’s facilities and equipment, and ensuring health and safety measures are in place for hazards that cannot be eliminated.
- The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 state that all employers must ensure that employees are trained when carrying out manual handling operations. This includes being given the appropriate equipment, such as lifts and hoists.
- The Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 state that all employers must provide employees with the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
If you believe that your employer did not comply with any of the above, they may be liable for your workplace injury. Check your No Win No Fee claim eligibility for free by contacting us today.
What Care Worker Accident Compensation Can I Get?
The amount of care worker accident compensation you could get depends on how severely you were impacted by your injury. Your impacts can be divided into two categories:
- General damages – your physical and mental impacts, such as the pain, the expected length of recovery, and changes to your quality of life.
- Special damages – your financial impacts.
A publication called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), alongside your medical records, can help legal professionals calculate the value of your general damages. The JCG lists a variety of injuries, with guideline compensation figures for each.
To show you what guideline compensation figures lie within the JCG, we have included some in the table below (only the top figure is not from the JCG). Please bear in mind that none of these figures can be guaranteed, as all work injury compensation claims are unique.
| Injury type | Severity | Guideline compensation figures |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries + special damages, such as medical bills and loss of earnings | Serious | Up to £500,000+ |
| Back | Severe (a)(i) severe pain and damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots | £111,150 to £196,450 |
| Severe (a)(ii) Nerve root damage with impaired mobility, loss of sensation, and impaired bowel/bladder function | £90,510 to £107,910 | |
| Moderate (b)(i) Cases such as a traumatic spondylolisthesis with continuous pain and a liklihood that spinal fusion will be necessary | £33,880 to £47,320 | |
| Minor (c)(i) A full recovery without surgery will take 2-5 years | £9,630 to £15,260 | |
| Hernia | Continuing pain and limitation of activities (a) | £18,180 to £29,490 |
| Direct inguinal hernia (b) | £8,560 to £11,120 | |
| Leg | Less serious (c)(i) incomplete recovery from a fracture or serious soft tissue injuries | £21,920 to £33,880 |
| Less serious (c)(iii) simple fractures or soft tissue injuries | Up to £14,450 |
Can A Care Worker Claim For Financial Losses After An Injury?
Yes, a care worker can claim back on the finances they have lost as a result of their injury under special damages. Special damages are highly important, as they can reimburse your past, present, and future financial losses, such as:
- Lost earnings for taking time off work to recover.
- Future lost earnings if you’re unable to return to work due to your injury.
- Medical expenses, such as specialist treatment and prescriptions.
- Travel expenses for making your way to and from hospital appointments.
To ensure that you are reimbursed for all of your financial impacts, please keep all evidence you have in the form of payslips, invoices, receipts, and bank statements.
You can get a more personalised review on the potential value of your care worker injury claim by chatting to us today.
What Should I Do After Being Injured As A Care Worker?
If you have been injured as a care worker, the first thing you should do is seek medical attention immediately. You should also:
- Report the incident to your manager.
- Ensure that your employer records the incident in the company accident book.
If you are hospitalised and have suffered a serious injury, a manager or colleague can ensure that these things are done for you.
Once you’ve done this, you should start thinking about what evidence you can gather.
What Evidence Will Help To Support My Claim?
The evidence that best supports care worker injury claims will prove how negligence occurred. Such evidence includes:
- CCTV footage of the accident.
- Contact details from other colleagues or residents who witnessed the accident. They can provide a witness statement at some point in the claims process.
- Photographs of your injury.
- A copy of your medical records.
- A copy of the accident report form.
- Correspondence between you and your employer about the incident.
- Personal notes you have made regarding your symptoms and treatment.
If you connect with our panel of solicitors, they can gather your evidence for you. So, you don’t have to worry about this, and you can focus on recovering from your injury instead.
How Long Will I Have To Bring My Claim?
The care worker injury claims time limit is 3 years, meaning that you have 3 years from the date of the accident to begin legal proceedings, as per the Limitation Act 1980.
There are only a couple of exceptions where this time limit can be paused. To learn about what these exceptions are, please contact us today.
Claiming After Being Attacked Whilst Working As A Carer
If you have been attacked whilst working as a carer, then you could potentially make a criminal injury claim. There are several avenues when making a criminal injury claim:
- Directly against the perpetrator – this is only an option if you can identify them, and if they have the funds to compensate you.
- Against a vicariously liable party – in this case, this would be your employer. Your employer could be held liable if you have suffered a criminal injury if they failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the assault, such as ignoring your safety concerns or not identifying known risks with particular residents.
- Through the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (CICA) – the CICA is a government agency that can provide compensation for those who’ve suffered a criminal injury in Great Britain.
If you can make a criminal injury claim through one of the first 2 avenues, then the same eligibility criteria, as stated previously, needs to be met.
What If My Employer Is Not Responsible?
If your employer, cannot be held liable for the assault at work, then you’d have to make your criminal injury claim through the CICA. However, a different eligibility criteria applies. You need to prove that:
- You suffered an injury from a crime of violence, such as an assault.
- The crime took place in England, Scotland, or Wales.
- You reported the incident to the police.
The time limits for making a claim through the CICA also differs from the care worker injury claims time limit that we have already discussed.
To learn about how to make a criminal injury claim as a care worker, or about what the CICA claims time limit is, please contact us.
How Much Compensation Would I Get Claiming Through The CICA?
If you’re making a claim through the CICA after being assaulted as a care worker, your criminal injuries will be valued using the fixed tariff of injuries from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012.
If you have suffered more than 1 criminal injury, you can claim for up to 3 injuries at once under the CICA’s tariff. However, the multiple injuries formula would also apply. This means that you’d receive:
- 100% of the tariff amount for the injury that is valued the highest.
- 30% of the tariff amount for the injury that is valued the 2nd highest.
- 15% of the tariff amount for the injury that is valued the 3rd highest.
However, if the violent crime has led to you:
- Losing a foetus.
- Becoming pregnant. Or,
- Contracting an STI.
Then you can be awarded compensation that‘s not subjected to the above formula.
In the table below, we have taken some injuries from the CICA’s Scheme that a care worker could potentially suffer, with their correlating tariffs.
| Injury type | Severity | Tariff values |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious criminal injuries + special expenses | Serious | Up to £500,000 |
| Brain damage | Very serious brain injury | £175,000 |
| Moderate brain damage (significant) | £82,000 | |
| Minor brain damage (lasting 2+ years) | £22,000 | |
| Face | Multiple face fractures | £11,000 |
| Cheek bone fracture (with significant, permanent disability) | £3,500 | |
| Skull | Depressed skull fracture (requiring surgery) | £4,600 |
| Teeth | Loss of 4 or more front teeth | £3,500 |
| Loss of 1 front tooth | £1,500 |
We must note that the top figure is the highest that can be awarded in any CICA claim.
What Are Special Expenses?
Special expenses can reimburse you for certain costs you have lost as a result of the assault:
- Any equipment that was damaged during the assault that you relied on, such as hearing aids.
- Any equipment that you need to cope with your injuries, such as a specially adapted car.
- Home adaptation costs, such as adding a stairlift.
- Care costs that relate to food preparation or your bodily functions.
- Costs for supervision if this prevents significant danger to yourself or others.
- Admin costs of your affairs, if your reduced mental capacity has caused these to arise.
- Your loss of earnings, although certain requirements need to be met.
All of the above costs must be directly resulting from your criminal injury, necessary, and cannot be claimed for free anywhere else.
How Can Public Interest Lawyers Help Me Claim Care Worker Injury Compensation?
Our panel of solicitors at Public Interest Lawyers can help you claim care worker injury compensation by doing most of the hard legal work for you. They can:
- Collect your evidence.
- Correspond with your employer, the police, or any other relevant parties on your behalf.
- Ensure that your compensation value is fair.
- Sort out what legal representation you need if the case gets sent to court.
- Define any legal jargon you come across.
- Send you regular updates on the progress of the case.
What’s more, they do all of this work on a No Win No Fee basis.
All of our panel’s clients get offered a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which essentially means that the client doesn’t pay a single penny for their solicitor’s work:
- Before the claim begins.
- While the case is ongoing.
- If the claim is unsuccessful.
Instead, a success fee simply gets taken out of their compensation if the claim is successful. A success fee is a legally-capped, small percentage kept by the solicitor. What percentage is taken is discussed between the solicitor and client before the claim begins, so there are no hidden charges.
If you want to make a care worker injury claim on these terms, and have all of this work done on your behalf, please contact us today.
Contact Our Advisors
Our panel of solicitors are highly trained and have decades of combined experience in winning all kinds of personal injury claims. They prioritise your needs and concerns, ensuring that your claim has the best possible chance of success.
Chat to us for free today to see if you can claim compensation:
- Call 0800 408 7825
- Fill out our Contact Us form
- Message a member of our team directly using the chat box on the screen.
More Information
For more of our personal injury claims guides, please see here:
- How residents can make a care home negligence claim.
- Claim compensation for dermatitis.
- How to make an accident at work claim as a part-time member of staff.
You might also find it useful to browse these other pages:
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) – find a care home and check its quality of care.
- Gov.UK – information on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – information on health and safety in care homes.
We hope that this care worker injury claims guide has given you the clarity you needed on your next steps. Please remember that if you are a carer that’s been injured at work, there’s nothing stopping you from making a claim enquiry today. Even if you’re unsure whether you’re entitled to compensation, our friendly advisors can find this out for you and answer any of your questions.