Important compensation recovery information for compensators
If you have received a personal injury claim for compensation there are details we will need to know. As a compensator, you have responsibilities under legislation to ensure DfC can effectively operate the Compensation Recovery Scheme. This page details your responsibilities, our responsibilities and the legislation under which we operate.
Compensator responsibilities
When a claim for personal injury compensation is received, the legislation requires you to notify the Compensation Recovery Unit Northern Ireland (CRU NI) using a CRU1/CRS1 Form within 14 days. This does not mean that you have accepted any liability for the accident, injury or disease. All personal injury claims must be notified to us even if the claim is repudiated or it is settled quickly via third party capture.
When a personal injury compensation claim is settled, the compensator should notify CRU NI within 14 days. If you do not have a valid Certificate of Recoverable Benefits and Health Service Charges when you are ready to settle the claim, you must apply for one before the claim is settled.
You can use the Compensation Recovery Update Template to request a certificate or notify us of settlement details.
Certificates of Recoverable Benefit and Health Service Charges become payable 14 days after case settlement and payment must be made to CRU NI immediately.
It is important that there is compliance with the legislation supporting the administration of the recovery of benefits and health service charges, as failure to comply could lead to further action taken by the Department for Communities
A full overview of our schemes can be found in our Leaflet Z1, Recovery of benefits and health service charges - A guide for companies and solicitors.
Our responsibilities
A Certificate of Recoverable Benefits specifies 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 us immediately before you pay any compensation payment.
We will send you a Certificate where you have asked for one you have provided the mandatory information. If you have not requested a Certificate we will send Form CRU4 to use when applying for a Certificate of Recoverable Benefits or a Certificate of Health Service Charges.
We will issue a Certificate of Recoverable Benefits within 28 days of receiving the request.
A Certificate of Health Service charges will be sent separately as soon as treatment is confirmed by the Hospital Trust.
We will action any review requests as soon as possible after all relevant information has been provided.
The Department 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 fail to repay us the specified amount.
We will answer any enquiries you make as soon as possible. If you have a query, please contact us on 0800 587 2980.
Notifying Compensation Recovery Scheme on-line
Compensators can now send on-line notifications of compensation claims directly to us. This service is provided through the Claims Underwriting Exchange Personal Injury Database.
CUE PI is a UK wide secure database of personal injury/industrial illness claims and includes claims previously held on the NI database - NIPAR. Any claim which is submitted to us at the Compensation Recovery Scheme is held on the database as well as claims from individual residents abroad (who do not need to notify us).
The information on the database is provided by insurers and other compensators who are members of Insurance Database Services Ltd (IDSL). IDSL manages three claims databases on behalf of its members - CUE PI, CUE Motor and CUE Home.
All claims for compensation arising out of injury or industrial illness are held on the CUE PI database. Each record on the database relates to a single claimant. The CUE PI database can be searched at any time to provide the claims history of the individual. No claim settlements are shown on CUE PI as the purpose of the database is to show all claims and which type of injury/illness have occurred to the individual.
The benefits of the database are:
- claims management - identification of previous related claims
- potential fraud - identification of patterns of similar claims against other insurers/compensators
- convenience - easy search for related claims
- efficiency - desktop access means less paper
- benefit to the Compensation Recovery Unit Northern Ireland - can create notification form (CRU1) to send to us
There is also the facility to allow us to issue acknowledgements and certificates on-line.
The system allows users to:
- add claims to the database (when claims are added the system automatically searches for related claims)
- submit the CRU1 electronically to Compensation Recovery Unit in GB and the Compensation Recovery Unit in Northern Ireland
- update CUE PI records (for example, finding an additional previous address)
- request certificates/statements
- receive certificates
- advise CRU NI when a case has settled
- make ad hoc enquiries (eg. it would allow a search to be carried out on a witness to ensure that there are no previous claims involving the witness and the claimant)
Compensators who communicate with CRU NI through electronic means should be aware that Injured Party Representative details can only be provided on the Electronic Interface at claim registration stage. If further details become available after the claim has been registered, you must provide any updates by Telephone to CRU NI on 0800 587 2980.
You can get access to this database by contacting IDSL, which is a not for profit company set up by insurers to allow data to be shared between them. Membership is open to all authorised insurers in UK, Lloyd's syndicates and compensators. To discuss membership please contact:
MIB – Customer Relationship Team
Linford Wood House
6-12 Capital Drive
Milton Keynes
MK14 6XT
email: CustomerEnquiries@mib.org.uk
Website: www.mib.org.uk
The Law
We operate primarily under the following legislation:
- The Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) (Northern Ireland) Order 1997
- The Health and Personal Social Services Act (NI) 2001 (Part 2)
- The Recovery of Health Services Charges (NI) Order 2006
All the relevant legislation can be found on The National Archives website Northern Ireland Legislation.
The Blue Volumes is an electronic version of the printed volumes 'The Law Relating to Social Security for Northern Ireland'.
If you need advice or assistance on any matters relating to compensation recovery, please contact Compensation Recovery Unit Northern Ireland.