Serious injury claims take time. A moderate personal injury claim settles in 9-18 months; a catastrophic brain, spinal or birth injury claim can take 4-7 years because final settlement is deliberately held until the long-term prognosis is clear. That's the right thing for the eventual award - but it leaves claimants and families facing years of lost earnings, private treatment costs, equipment needs and sometimes urgent housing adaptations without access to the compensation that will ultimately pay for them.
Serious injury claims take time. A moderate personal injury claim settles in 9-18 months; a catastrophic brain, spinal or birth injury claim can take 4-7 years because final settlement is deliberately held until the long-term prognosis is clear. That's the right thing for the eventual award - but it leaves claimants and families facing years of lost earnings, private treatment costs, equipment needs and sometimes urgent housing adaptations without access to the compensation that will ultimately pay for them.
Interim payments are the solution. They let you draw down a portion of your eventual compensation during the claim - legally, through the Civil Procedure Rules Part 25 or by agreement with the defendant's insurer. This guide explains how they work, when you qualify, what they fund, and how much you can expect.
What is an interim payment?
An interim payment is a payment of money by the defendant (or their insurer) to the claimant on account of the eventual damages - essentially an advance against the final settlement. Interim payments can be:
- Voluntary - agreed between your solicitor and the defendant's insurer without a court order. Most interim payments in practice.
Interim payments are not 'extra' money. At the end of the case, the final settlement is reduced by the interim payments already received. Their purpose is timing - bringing the funds forward when they're needed, not increasing the total.
When can you get an interim payment? - the CPR 25.7 conditions
Under rule 25.7 of the Civil Procedure Rules, the court can order an interim payment only if one of the following is satisfied:
- The defendant has admitted liability to pay damages to the claimant (most common trigger).
Additional conditions apply in specific situations (multiple defendants, fatal accidents, co-claimants). Your solicitor handles this - the mechanics rarely come up for claimants in practice.
The 'reasonable proportion' limit
Under CPR 25.7(4), the court must not order an interim payment of more than 'a reasonable proportion of the likely amount of the final judgment'. The leading case on this - Eeles v Cobham Hire Services [2009] EWCA Civ 204 - gives a two-stage framework: first, conservatively estimate the likely final award; then assess how much of that can properly be advanced. For large catastrophic cases, interim payments of £300,000 to £1m+ are common; for moderate claims, tens of thousands are typical. The key limit is the judge's assessment of what the final award will 'comfortably' exceed.
Voluntary interim payments - the more common route
The majority of interim payments in UK personal injury practice are voluntary - agreed in writing between your solicitor and the insurer, without court involvement. The insurer benefits too: agreeing interim payments demonstrates good faith under the Pre-Action Protocol, often accelerates overall claim resolution, and funds treatment that may reduce the final loss-of-earnings component. A voluntary interim can be negotiated:
- As soon as liability is admitted.
Multiple interim payments are common in long-running claims - a first interim to fund acute private treatment, a second to fund accommodation adaptation, a third to sustain income during a long recovery, and so on.
The Rehabilitation Code 2015 - a parallel rehab funding route
The Rehabilitation Code 2015 (agreed between the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, the Association of British Insurers, the International Underwriting Association and other stakeholders) provides a structured framework for early rehabilitation funding - often before formal interim payments are in play, and sometimes before liability has been formally admitted.
Under the Code, the claimant's solicitor and the defendant's insurer jointly fund an 'Immediate Needs Assessment' by an independent case manager, who produces a recommended rehab programme. Agreed rehabilitation services - physiotherapy, psychological therapy, vocational rehabilitation, case management, home adaptation assessment - are then funded by the insurer directly to the providers. The funding is separate from the eventual damages calculation in that rehab under the Code is not generally argued to be 'recovered' from the final award - it's an investment in the claimant's recovery.
In catastrophic injury cases, the Rehabilitation Code framework and interim payments are used side by side - the Code funds ongoing structured rehab, and interim payments fund everything else (income replacement, adapted accommodation, equipment, case management beyond the basic Code provision).
What can interim payments fund?
Anything reasonable that the final award is likely to include. The most common heads:
Private medical treatment
- Specialist surgeon fees, scans, investigations.
Rehabilitation and case management
- Case manager fees.
Replacement income
- Net earnings lost beyond statutory sick pay / contractual sick pay.
Accommodation and adaptation
- Home adaptation works - widening doors, wet rooms, stair lifts, ceiling tracking, ramps.
Equipment
- Wheelchairs, both powered and manual.
Care and support
- Paid professional care.
Other
- Deputyship fees (for protected parties - court-appointed financial management).
How to request an interim payment
- Identify the need. Speak with your solicitor about what you need funded and when.
How soon can you get an interim payment?
In urgent catastrophic cases, the first interim payment can sometimes be arranged within weeks of liability being admitted. In the NHS Resolution Early Notification Scheme for severe birth-brain-injury cases, interim payments for rehabilitation and adapted accommodation have been made within months of the scheme being activated. Realistic typical timings:
- Serious RTA / work accident with early liability admission: 2-6 months from instruction.
For less serious claims with a shorter overall timeline, interim payments are sometimes not worth the effort - the final settlement is close enough that the whole amount comes as one.
Does an interim payment affect the final settlement?
Yes - but only in that it reduces the outstanding balance. Mathematically, the final settlement is:
Final agreed award − interim payments already received = balance paid at settlement.
There's no penalty for taking interim payments; you don't 'lose' any portion of the claim by taking the money early. The interim payments simply become part of the total. In fact, early rehab-focused interim payments often produce a better outcome - faster recovery, better long-term function - which benefits the claimant enormously while also tending to reduce the loss-of-earnings component and the insurer's final exposure.
Will interim payments affect my benefits?
A lump-sum interim payment held as capital can affect means-tested benefits (Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support, Pension Credit) by pushing you over the capital threshold. The solution is the same as for the final settlement - a Personal Injury Trust held by the claimant or (for a child) the litigation friend. Income from a PIT is also disregarded. See personal injury trusts.
For immediate, directly-spent funds (paying a contractor for adaptation work, paying a care provider, paying a treatment bill), benefit disregard rules usually aren't triggered because the money doesn't remain as capital. Your solicitor handles the mechanics - often the interim payment is paid directly to the provider rather than routed through the claimant's account.
Will getting interim payments affect my no-win-no-fee agreement?
No. Interim payments are a normal feature of Conditional Fee Agreement claims. They don't alter the success-fee cap (25% of general damages and past losses), they don't accelerate the point at which success fees become payable, and they don't reduce the after-the-event insurance protection. They simply bring forward the timing of some of the money. See no win no fee explained.
