Claiming for Loss of Earnings if an Injury Leaves You Unable to Work

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Quick Answer: Yes, you can claim for lost wages as part of your personal injury compensation settlement if you’re off work due to an injury caused by someone else’s negligence. This includes potential loss of future earnings and even missed opportunities for career advancement.

Accidents can turn your life upside-down. Whether you work full-time, part-time or on a self-employed basis, the professional impact can be huge. Being forced to take time off work with an injury can be a strain not just mentally and physically, but financially too.

If you’ve been injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault, and you’ve lost income because of it, there’s a strong chance you can claim for lost wages. This applies regardless of whether you were injured at work or elsewhere.

Here we explore how to claim for loss of earnings, what evidence you’ll need, and how to maximise your compensation.

Types of Loss of Earnings Claims

  1. Short-term loss of earnings: For injuries causing a few days or weeks off work
  2. Long-term loss of earnings: For injuries resulting in months or years of inability to work
  3. Loss of future earnings: For injuries affecting your long-term earning capacity
  4. Loss of overtime or bonuses: For missed opportunities to earn additional income
  5. Self-employed loss of earnings: For business owners or freelancers who’ve lost income

It might be that an accident has stopped you from working for a few days or weeks. Alternatively, your situation might be serious enough to prevent you from doing your job for months, years, or even indefinitely. Whatever your circumstances, and whatever type of injury you’ve suffered, a loss of earnings claim requires evidence.

Evidence Required for Loss of Earnings Claims

For Employed Individuals

  • Recent payslips (typically for the 3 months or 13 weeks prior to the accident)
  • Bank statements
  • P60 forms
  • Employment contract detailing salary and benefits
  • Statement from your employer confirming time off and lost wages

The simplest way to prove how much income you’ve lost is through your most recent payslips. In many cases, payslips for the three months, or 13 weeks, prior to the accident will be enough, but you may need more. Bank statements can be used if necessary.

In straightforward cases, it’s then a case of calculating how long you’ve been unable to work and how much take-home pay you’ve missed out on. Be aware that the sum you’ll be due will reflect your net monthly pay – in other words, the income you normally receive after tax and national insurance contributions.

Issues such as overtime, bonuses, holiday allowances, pension payments and other perks can all be considered too, so long as you can prove you would otherwise have benefited from them. Where things like overtime are concerned, payslips of colleagues can provide useful evidence to back up your case.

And don’t worry if you work erratic hours or have a variable wage from month to month. It’s often possible to look at previous payslips to come up with a figure that represents your average income.

For Self-Employed Individuals

  • Tax returns for the past 3 years
  • Business accounts
  • Invoices or contracts for work you were unable to complete
  • Bank statements
  • Accountant’s statement

Although the claims tend to be slightly more complicated, you’re still entitled to claim for loss of earnings if you’re self-employed.

You’ll need to provide the last three years’ worth of your verified business accounts (or as close to three years as possible) to show your average earnings. This helps to work out the loss of profit caused by your accident.

Where feasible, you should also show evidence of work projects that were in the calendar before the injury, but which became impossible to fulfil. Evidence of this kind might take the form of written instructions from a client, a pre-agreed contract that’s now been lost, or even a dated email exchange.

It’s also helpful to keep a careful record of the days you were (or still are) unable to work, as well as a detailed overview of your financial accounts.

Calculating Loss of Earnings

Your solicitor will typically calculate your loss of earnings based on your net pay (after tax and national insurance). The calculation may include:

  1. Basic salary
  2. Overtime payments
  3. Bonuses
  4. Commission
  5. Pension contributions
  6. Other work-related benefits

For those with variable income, an average may be calculated based on previous earnings.

Claiming for Future Loss of Earnings

If your injury has long-term effects on your ability to work, you may be able to claim for future loss of earnings. This could include:

  1. Reduced earning capacity due to disability
  2. Inability to return to your previous job
  3. Need for retraining or career change
  4. Early retirement due to injury

If you’ve been unlucky enough to suffer a serious accident, your claim might be far more significant. And if your capacity to work is still severely reduced, affecting your long-term prospects, the losses you’re suffering may well be substantial. This may also apply if you’ve returned to work, only to find that your injuries have forced you to stop again.

If you’re nearing retirement age, or have been involved in an extremely bad accident, it might be genuinely impossible for you to return to work at all. In this instance, your total losses could include your expected earnings up until the time you were likely to retire.

Most cases of this kind would use the standard retirement age, unless there was strong proof that you were due to carry on working beyond this time. Evidence such as a formal arrangement with your employer would be valuable here.

Self-employed workers can also potentially claim loss of earnings beyond retirement age – but again, a solid argument would be needed to support the case.

Impact on Benefits

Receiving compensation for loss of earnings may affect your eligibility for certain benefits. It’s important to seek advice on how a compensation award might impact your specific situation. Some benefit payments would generally be deducted from any compensation you’re due for loss of earnings.

Interim Payments

If you’re struggling financially while your claim is ongoing, or you’ve been forced to stop work for an extensive period, you may be able to request an interim payment. This is a partial payment of your expected compensation to help cover immediate expenses – a way of receiving part of your compensation before a final decision has been made.

Other Financial Losses You Can Claim

In addition to lost wages, you may be able to claim for:

  1. Medical expenses
  2. Travel costs to medical appointments
  3. Cost of care or assistance at home
  4. Modifications to your home or vehicle
  5. Loss of pension contributions

Other recoverable expenses could include unused gym memberships, missed cultural or sporting events (assuming tickets had already been purchased), and even clothing and personal effects damaged in the accident.

If you’ve had to employ tradespeople to take on tasks around the house that you would otherwise have done yourself, it may also be possible to add these expenses to a claim. Ensure you keep all receipts.

Maximising Your Loss of Earnings Claim

To ensure you receive full compensation for lost earnings:

  1. Keep detailed records of all time off work
  2. Document any missed opportunities for overtime or career advancement
  3. Gather all relevant financial documents promptly
  4. Be honest and accurate about your earnings and time off
  5. Consider the long-term impact of your injury on your career

Claiming for loss of earnings is an important part of ensuring you’re fully compensated for the impact of your injury. While the process can be complex, especially for those with variable income or self-employment, a skilled personal injury solicitor can help you navigate the claim and maximise your compensation.

To find out more, or to start your claim today, call us on 01225 430285. If you prefer, . After just a few minutes on the phone, we’ll have enough information to allow our solicitors to get your claim started.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Comments & Questions

Read on for questions and advice about claiming...

Last year whilst working on a machine for maintenance it toppled over. I instinctively reached out to stop and resulted in a partial rupture of my left Bicep, due to the injury I was off work for four months receiving only SSP the loss of earnings meant spending all our savings on Mortgage repayments and household bills. Would I have a case to reclaim my lost earnings?

Ian Morris

You could recover your lost income and costs incurred, but only if you are able to succeed with a claim for workplace injury compensation. To succeed with such a claim, you would have to demonstrate that the cause of the injury (and therefore the cause of your losses) was down to negligence from your employer or someone else. For example, if you were not adequately or correctly trained to use the machine you were working or if the machine toppled because of a defect in the ground, or a hazard that should not have been present.

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Hello, I had a accident in work almost 7 years ago now In which I made a claim. My work admitted liability and I was paid out on a injury lasting for 4 years. On this claim I didn’t claim for loss of earning as when I had the accident I was off for 3 weeks which they paid me for. Now, I still have that back injury, and I have had a lot of time off. Can I claim for loss of earnings? I’m losing too much money as I’m taking weeks at a time off. I only get SSP. I would be grateful if you could advise me. Thank you.

Ian Morris

Unfortunately, our view is that you cannot return for an additional settlement to cover the loss of income you are now sustaining. When your claim was settled previously, the settlement would have included loss of income and estimated future losses, on the basis of medical expert opinion.

Sadly, the law does not allow you to return for additional compensation years after accepting a settlement.

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Can you claim for loss of earnings after leaving your job that you had previously injured yourself at. Resulting in needed an operation to fix and being signed off sick for 3 months?

Ian Morris

When any person succeeds with a personal injury compensation claim, they can seek to recover a settlement for their injuries and also a separate claim for loss of income and expenses – known as special damages.

Whether or not you will be able to hold the employer liable for your future loss of earnings in your situation is impossible for us to tell at this stage. Have you already started a claim for the injuries you mention? If so, you should discuss your loss of income with your Solicitor. If not, we can get our specialist Solicitors to look in to this for you.

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I was injured at work and also lost earnings. I was advised by many staff to claim for loss of six months of earnings after I had resigned.

Now I am wishing to go back and work at the same place. However, I wonder if the fact that I had claimed for loss of earnings, can they make it difficult for me not to be employed by them?

Ian Morris

There is no legal or legitimate reason that the employer could use to treat you unfairly or discriminate against you at work, simply because you exercised your legal right to make a claim for compensation after being injured at work.

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I have had a fall at work and I am wondering where I stand. I work for a agency and went to my work place, it had been snowing and was extremely icy. I slipped on the ice due to it not been gritted at all. I attend hospital and have to rest my arm for 5 days, it’s in a sling, when management was asked why it hadn’t been gritted the answer was to save money. I will need a few days off work and won’t be getting paid, can I claim loss of earnings?

Ian Morris

Lynn

I am sorry to hear about your injury. Having spoken to many people in your situation over the years, we understand that the pain and discomfort of an injury like yours is made all the worse when it transpires that you will also be out of pocket due to lost income.

Claiming compensation after slipping on ice or snow is not always a straight forward process because ice and snow is known to be slippery. However, when it happens in the workplace it can often be an easier process. The fact that your employers (even though you are working via an agency) have decided to save a few pounds by not spending money on gritting or salting the area could make them liable for your injuries.

We would definitely be happy to help you try to make a claim for injury compensation against the business where you were working. As with all accidents at work, it is important to ensure that you have reported the details of your accident to both the business where you are working and the agency who have placed you there.

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Whilst loading beds on to a transit van the portable ramp slipped from the top step to the second step which resulted in a hernia developing. i am currently out for 4 weeks whilst awaiting surgery and then off for an undisclosed length of time for recovery. Due to the nature of my work, i am not able to return to work for light duties. i have been told i will be paid ssp but this doesn’t even cover the rent, let alone other bills….

I only want my loss of wages covered, so i don’t get into debt.

Ian Morris

Daniel

I am sorry to hear about your situation. Sadly, having to cope with the stress a temporary loss of income is a common thread we hear from people who, like you, contact us after an accident at work.

You could certainly make a claim for accident at work compensation – this would be against your employers insurance (employers liability insurance). Any claim (if successful) would enable you to claim a level of compensation to cover the pain and distress caused by your injury, but more importantly allow you to reclaim any lost income. You should certainly note any loss of income and keep a record as this would be used in your claim to enable you to claim special damages (lost income and costs).

It is important to make sure that the details of your accident and the cause of your injuries (the faulty ramp) within your employers accident book. If this has not already been done, you should contact your employers at the earliest opportunity to report your accident correctly. A good way of doing so is to email them outlining the details of your situation. You can then keep a copy of your record in your ‘sent emails’ folder for future reference – this could be very helpful to any future claim for compensation.

We would certainly be keen to assist you with a claim and can link you up with the right specialist injury compensation solicitor. May I direct you to follow this link: where you can submit a claim enquiry with more information so that we can contact you to help you get your claim up and running.

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