What Is An Interim Payment?

Personal injury interim payments help you cover your costs while your compensation claim progresses. They’re payments that you get before we agree a final compensation settlement.

Interim payments can help to pay for:

Household bills: interim payments can help make up for lost earnings if you can’t work due to your injury
Medical treatments: pay for prescriptions, private medical care or rehabilitation
Care costs: pay for in-home care or nursing
Travel expenses: to cover the cost of travelling to medical appointments
Home adaptations and equipment: adapt your home or buy adaptive equipment, such as a wheelchair or accessible vehicle.

Depending on your situation, you may need a single interim payment or multiple payments over months or years as your claim continues. Serious injury and brain injury claims can take a long time and involve a number of interim payments.

How do I get an interim payment?

When you make a personal injury claim, we’ll discuss your medical and rehabilitation needs, and any earnings that you’ve lost. We’ll help you estimate what your costs are going to be, both now and in the future.

If we agree that interim payments are suitable, we’ll request them for you.

To begin with, you can only request interim payments if the people you’re claiming against admit that they were responsible for your injuries. However, we can also ask the court to order an interim payment if:

Liability is admitted: the people you’re claiming against admit liability once the case has started
The case is likely to succeed: a trial is likely to go your way
There’s an urgent need: you have a good reason to request an interim payment, such as an urgent medical bill
The amount requested is reasonable: your interim payment request is for a reasonable amount that’s less than your total compensation.

If you need multiple interim payments, the court will need to agree to each one.

How much can I get as an interim payment?

The amount you can get as an interim payment depends on your situation and the seriousness of your injuries.

Interim payments amounts are decided based on your overall compensation – they must be a ‘reasonable proportion’ of the overall amount. The amount you can request takes into account things like:

Medical costs, including rehabilitation and physiotherapy
Loss of income
Aids, equipment and home adaptations to help with your injuries – for example, a leg brace, an accessible car, or changes to make your bathroom easier to use
Cost of transport to and from medical appointments.

The same rule applies if you request multiple interim payments.

Our solicitors will help you work out your costs and request reasonable interim payments to make sure you get the best medical care possible. We’ll also argue your case as strongly as possible to help you get the interim payments you need.

Making an enquiry

We have several ways you can contact us, either by completing our online contact form, by phone, or using our live chat. If you start your journey online, here are the first steps to working together.

Complete our online form
We need a few details to understand your situation and the kind of support you need.
We’ll contact you by phone
On the call our experts will ask you a few more questions to make sure we connect you with the right legal advice from our team.
We arrange a full appointment
If we’re able to support you further, the next step is an appointment with one of our specialists so we can discuss everything in more detail.

Get in touch

Do interim payments affect the final compensation I receive?

Your final compensation payment will take into account any interim payments that you’ve already had. This means that your final payment will be lower, but you won’t get any less money overall.

Many people prefer to get interim payments rather than one big lump sum because:

They rely on the financial support of interim payments during their claim
Interim payments help you spread your compensation out throughout your recovery
You can cover costs as they arise
You don’t have to put off medical procedures or equipment purchases until your claim is over.

If you make a compensation claim with us, we’ll discuss whether interim payments are suitable for you.

Do interim payments affect my benefit entitlement?

Interim payments may affect your eligibility for means-tested benefits. However, we may be able to arrange your payments in a way that doesn’t affect your existing benefits. A personal injury trust is one way that may let you continue claiming benefits.

If you’ve claimed benefits due to your injury – for example, unemployment benefit because you’re out of work – this could also impact your interim payments. Your interim payment will be reduced by the amount of benefits that you have claimed. We’ll take this into account when we request interim payments for you.

What is the grace period for interim payments?

Generally, the first personal injury payment received, including any interim payment, is disregarded for 12 months (52 weeks) when working out your entitlement to means tested benefits like Universal Credit.

This means the first payment won’t count towards your capital for the first year, so it won’t reduce or stop your benefits during that time.

After 12 months, any money you still have may then be included when your benefits are assessed. However, further payments can be disregarded if you place those into a trust or if you lack capacity to manage your financial affairs and the payments are placed into the Court of Protection.

What is the difference between a voluntary vs court-ordered payment?

Most interim payments are agreed voluntarily between your solicitor and your opponent, without needing to go to court.

A court-ordered payment might be needed if the insurer refuses to cooperate or causes unreasonable delays, meaning a judge must decide whether a payment should be made after an application has been made by us on your behalf.

In practice, voluntary agreements are far more common and usually much quicker to access.

If you lack capacity to instruct a solicitor in respect of the litigation, the court must approve any interim payments.

Will I have to pay tax on my interim payments?

You don’t have to pay tax on personal injury interim payments. All personal injury compensation is tax-free, whether you get it in one lump sum or in parts.

It doesn’t matter how big your interim payments are, or how many you get – you won’t pay tax on them.

If you’d like to know more about interim payments or any other aspect of personal injury claims, contact us online.

Speak to a specialist

We are here to help you understand your rights and the support you need. Complete our enquiry form and one of our experts will contact you by the next working day.

Alternatively, you can call us now.

Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm (Excluding Public Holidays).

Call us free on 0370 1500 100

What Is An Interim Payment?

Frequently asked questions about interim payments