Three years of OIC
Today marks the third anniversary of the Official Injury Claim service as we take stock of milestone achievements. We saw wider industry and policy-driven events across 2024 and the work that has been done to ensure the portal has been working consistently and with 24/7 access, providing the option for people to submit a personal injury claim without the need for representation.
The data tells a positive story, with over 800,000 claims now entered into the system (80,000 of which unrepresented) and over £300m paid out to claimants – there’s no arguing that the service is working and providing a pathway to settlement for those who need it.
We’re still listening
We continue to reach out regularly for feedback, taking on board the needs of our users and in March this year, we shared the outcomes from the feedback provided in the roundtable sessions in 2023. Improvements have been and continue to be made as a direct result of listening to what users fed back to us during these events and we continue to share valuable insight directly with the MoJ.
With the roundtable events now behind us, we are aware that many users and stakeholders continue to want to contribute feedback regarding the service, and as a result we have left the online feedback form open permanently, so that we can capture as much input as possible. If you are a professional user or stakeholder of OIC and wish to share your opinion with us directly, we welcome you to please fill out the OIC industry feedback form here.
We’re responding
We are keenly aware how aside from making suggested changes, sharing data with our stakeholders and professional users can be beneficial, so have taken on board suggestions from many people across the year which are now reflected in the monthly reporting and quarterly publications. At the start of 2024, we added two new sections into the quarterly publication which we hope has provided greater context and clarity surrounding claim lifecycles and dormancy. As always, we are open to any further suggestions in this area, so please do contact us and we will consider all ideas.
We’re supporting
We are also pleased with the success of the Help Hub area on our website, which was created in response to customer research. We have seen over 45,000 page views of the Help Hub homepage to date with direct claimants using this knowledge base to find the help and support they need to pursue their own claim. The Help Hub provides a valuable tool for pro-users using the system too, with many useful support documents providing step-by-step guidance through various portal journeys. We have been gradually adding to this space too, with walk-though video content now available, additional guides and updated documentation to reflect changes in policy. We will continue to update and add to the resource in this area of the website periodically.
Looking forward…
Moving ahead, we have a number of considerations which will, depending on some outcomes outside of our control, affect the build and operation of the portal. We are in ongoing dialogue with the MoJ on the following considerations:
- The imminent outcome of the Lord Chancellor’s review of the Whiplash Tariff
- The imminent outcome of the MoJ Medical Consultation report
- Outstanding enhancements to the limitation flow within the portal
- How, as a service, we deal with dormancy within the portal
- The proposed digitising of the Annex C and D documents within the portal
All of the above considerations could result in changes which will affect end users and while we acknowledge that change is disruptive for all of us, change will indeed need to happen. We will ensure that adequate time is provided for us to build and then release code for A2A users to make changes, as well as inform all users of changes to the portal flow, as required.
We will communicate directly with all our user groups in due course, providing details and timelines of any proposed changes to the portal, and will also share any updates surrounding these changes via our news blog and social channels.