The Official Injury Claim (OIC) portal is celebrating its first birthday today, and the industry has offered feedback as ‘presents’.
“One year on, we can say the Official Injury Claim portal has achieved some of its objectives,” commented Allianz Commercial motor claims head Nick Kelsall. “People can indeed submit their claim without hiring a lawyer or using a claims management company. And the overall cost of whiplash claims, which had previously been spiralling up, has in some respects been contained.
“However, the system could be further improved. Only one in 10 OIC claims come from unrepresented claimants; an awareness campaign could increase that proportion. Then, from a technical point of view, the portal could improve the procedure allowing an insurer to transfer a claim to another.”
Kelsall continued: “Finally, and more importantly, we’ve noticed that the OIC claims include additional injuries more frequently than before the whiplash reforms, and we wonder if this is not a deliberate tactic to circumvent the tariffs. This is definitely worth keeping an eye on.”
Rolled out by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau on May 31, 2021, the free service was developed on behalf of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as part of the whiplash reforms. The portal guides claimants through the process of making a claim, obtaining a medical report, managing the claim, and receiving compensation if the claim is successful.
For Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) executive director Matthew Maxwell Scott, the portal barely passed.
“Nobody doubts that a lot of work has gone on to try to make the OIC function as it should, but while it’s been an A for effort, it’s a D for delivery,” he asserted. “There is industry-wide consensus that the new portal has struggled, and that a system intended for the digital age has been hampered by a range of technical issues.
“Flaws have only come to light now because there was no pre-testing, and so far the MoJ has refused to sanction a change-control group to really grip the outstanding issues.”
Maxwell Scott went on to describe the service as “largely unaccountable” to consumers, given the lack of targets or measures when it comes to clarifying settlement times.
“It seems perverse to spend millions on a new portal and yet have no real way of knowing if it is working,” added the ACSO official. “So, we are left with what lawyers and insurers alike are saying, which is that it’s not.”
Association of British Insurers (ABI) general insurance policy director James Dalton, meanwhile, has been a lot gentler with his comments.
In an earlier statement, Dalton declared: “There is more to be done to fully realise the benefits of the whiplash reforms. The build of the OIC portal was a huge undertaking, and insurers and claimant representatives have spent time, effort, and money to make the new system work. Where there are areas that could be improved, we are committed to working with the OIC, the Ministry of Justice, insurers, claimant representatives, and others to help to deliver those.
“It is also positive that claimants have demonstrably been able to use the OIC portal to make whiplash claims without legal representation – hardly any claimants did this under the old system. We are committed to improving signposting to the OIC portal, improving the unrepresented claimant experience, and increasing the numbers of unrepresented claimants using the portal.”
The ABI director, expressing optimism, also said: “Although we are only one year into the whiplash reforms, taking a view on whether the reforms have been a ‘success or failure’ is unlikely to be clear cut. There is more work to be done, but it seems to me that we have all the necessary ingredients for success.”
