Every UK personal injury settlement is built from two parts - general damages and special damages. The terms are legal shorthand, but they determine how your claim is valued, what your solicitor asks you to document, and what ends up on the settlement cheque. If you've been injured, understanding the difference is the single clearest way to make sure nothing gets missed.
Every UK personal injury settlement is built from two parts - general damages and special damages. The terms are legal shorthand, but they determine how your claim is valued, what your solicitor asks you to document, and what ends up on the settlement cheque. If you've been injured, understanding the difference is the single clearest way to make sure nothing gets missed.
This guide explains both in plain English, with examples at three severity levels (minor, moderate, serious) and the full list of claimable heads that competitor pages routinely leave off.
Quick comparison
The simplest way to think about it:
- General damages = compensation for the injury itself - the pain, the suffering, the loss of enjoyment.
Both are paid by the defendant's insurer as part of the same settlement. There's no tax on either head in the UK. Both are calculated against the date you actually receive the money - not the date of the accident.
General damages - the injury itself
General damages compensate for three overlapping things:
- Pain and suffering - the physical and psychological experience of the injury from the moment of the accident onwards.
General damages are valued by reference to the Judicial College Guidelines - currently the 17th edition, published April 2024, which raised compensation levels by roughly 22% over the 16th edition to reflect inflation. The JCG sets out ranges for every major injury type, from minor whiplash (under the JCG framework where outside the tariff) through brain injury, paraplegia, amputation, psychiatric injury, scarring, burns, and loss of sight or hearing.
Where you sit in the JCG range for your injury type depends on:
- Severity - the medical facts of the injury.
For detailed injury-by-injury figures see how much compensation.
Special damages - the financial losses
Special damages cover everything the injury has cost you in money terms. They have two sub-categories:
Past losses
Losses incurred from the date of the accident to the date of settlement. Calculated precisely, from evidence - receipts, invoices, payslips, appointment letters, mileage logs.
Future losses
Losses projected forward from settlement - lost earnings, care, treatment, equipment, accommodation over a remaining working life or lifetime. Calculated using the Ogden Tables (see below).
The full list of claimable special damages is far wider than most claimants realise. The common heads:
Loss of earnings - past
Net pay lost during time off work, reduced hours, or unpaid leave. Includes bonuses, overtime, commission, tips, shift allowances, pension contributions, and employer perks. For self-employed claimants, loss is calculated from tax returns, invoices or contracts; for directors, from dividend and salary records.
Loss of earnings - future
Projected forward where the injury permanently affects earning capacity. Calculated using the Ogden Tables (see below) and a multiplier for the remaining working life, against a multiplicand of the net annual loss. In catastrophic injury cases, the future loss-of-earnings component routinely exceeds £500,000 - sometimes well into seven figures for younger claimants.
Loss of earning capacity - the Smith v Manchester award
A related but distinct head. Where an injury leaves you back in work at the same salary but more vulnerable in the labour market - you'd struggle to find the same job if you lost it, or your career ceiling has effectively been reduced - a separate 'Smith v Manchester' lump sum can be awarded (named after Smith v Manchester Corporation [1974] 17 KIR 1). Typically six months to two years of net earnings.
Medical and treatment costs
- Private consultations, surgery, imaging.
Care - paid and gratuitous
- Professional care (home care, residential care, respite care).
Equipment and aids
- Wheelchairs, walking aids, mobility scooters.
Accommodation and adaptation
- Home adaptations - wet rooms, ramps, widened doors, ceiling tracking.
Travel and transport
- Travel to medical appointments (including mileage at HMRC rates).
Vehicle and property
- Policy excess on your own motor insurance.
Loss of service, DIY and gardening
- Where the injury prevents you from doing household tasks you previously did, you can claim the cost of having them done - DIY, gardening, housework, decorating.
Holidays and leisure
- Lost cost of pre-booked holidays cancelled because of the injury.
Pension losses
Reduced employer pension contributions during time off or reduced hours, calculated to eventual retirement. In long-career claims, pension losses can be a surprisingly large slice of the total.
Deputyship fees
For protected parties (claimants lacking mental capacity), the cost of a professional deputy or trustee to manage the compensation is itself part of special damages.
For fatal cases
- Dependency losses - what dependents have lost financially through the death, under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976.
The Ogden Tables - how future losses are calculated
Future-loss compensation is calculated by multiplying an annual loss (the 'multiplicand') by a figure that represents the number of years over which the loss will run (the 'multiplier'). The multiplier is drawn from the Ogden Tables - actuarial tables published by the Government Actuary's Department. The tables factor in:
- Life expectancy or working-life expectancy.
In catastrophic cases with multi-decade lifetime losses, the Ogden multipliers produce multi-million-pound capital sums. The maths is technical but the principle is simple - future losses are valued at their present-day capital equivalent.
For the most serious cases, part of the settlement may be structured as a Periodical Payment Order (PPO) - an index-linked annual payment for life - rather than a single lump sum. PPOs are common in severe brain injury and lifetime-care cases.
Interest on damages
Interest is added to both general and special damages as part of the settlement:
- On general damages - 2% simple interest, running from the date of service of the Claim Form at court to the date of judgment or settlement.
Interest on special damages can be a significant figure in claims that drag on for years - often £5,000-£50,000 on top of the principal in long-running serious-injury claims.
The Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) - benefits offset
Where you have received state benefits (Statutory Sick Pay, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit attributable to the injury) because of the injury, the defendant must usually repay the DWP for those benefits out of the compensation. This is administered by the Compensation Recovery Unit under the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997.
Recoverable benefits are offset against specific heads of the claim in a prescribed way - typically loss of earnings, care, mobility, and loss of amenity - not against all damages. In practice, the offset rarely reduces your personal receipt because the defendant repays the DWP separately. Your solicitor handles this.
Three worked examples
Example 1 - moderate whiplash, 4 weeks off work (post-May 2025 RTA)
- General damages: tariff (3-6 month whiplash + minor psychological injury): £595
Example 2 - moderate back injury, 6 months off work, some ongoing restriction
- General damages (moderate back injury, mid-bracket): £22,000
Example 3 - severe brain injury, 40-year-old claimant, multi-million lifetime settlement
- General damages (moderately severe brain injury): £300,000
Example 3 would typically be structured as a lump sum plus a PPO for the recurring care and case management costs. Note how in serious cases, general damages become a small fraction of the total - the special-damages multipliers are where the valuation lives.
