Compensation claim news
04/05/2007

Social worker wins work accident claim

A Redditch social worker has won an accident claim payout of £90,000 after being injured in a work accident. Worcestershire County Council will pay the compensation claim in full.

The work accident happened in 2003 at a residential home for people with learning disabilities. The 39-year-old social worker was assisting a disabled woman move from a chair to a bed when the disabled woman lost her balance and, in attempting to clutch at her Zimmer Frame, fell onto the social worker who, as a result, slipped a disc.

The slipped disc later fragmented. She is now in perpetual pain, needs sticks to help her walk and is not fit to return to work.

She will have to pay £30,000 of the accident claim payout back to benefits agencies, which will leave her with only £60,000 of the initial payout. She believes the work accident compensation payout does not justly account for the fact that she has lost a yearly salary up until the age of 55.

The personal injury solicitor who represented her said that the social worker had only been on one manual handling course in over a decade, and that this may have contributed to her employer's culpability for the work accident.

The work accident claim was obtained with help from the public services union UNISON, who employed a personal injury solicitor to represent the woman. The compensation claim payout was awarded in an out-of-court settlement.