If you’ve been injured and you’re starting to think about what your claim might be worth, you’ll quickly come across the term “special damages.” It sounds straightforward enough, but the real question most people actually need answered isn’t what it means, it’s what you’ll be asked to hand over to prove it.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly what evidence courts and insurers expect for each type of loss, why genuine claims sometimes get reduced anyway, and what to do if you’re missing some of the paperwork.
What are special damages in personal injury?
Special damages in personal injury claims are the financial losses caused by your injury, calculated separately from the compensation you receive for the injury itself. While general damages compensate you for your pain, suffering and loss of amenity, special damages put a figure on what your injury has actually cost you.
Unlike general damages, which are valued against the Judicial College Guidelines, special damages must be individually evidenced and reasonably attributable to your injury.
The most common categories include:
| Special damages category | What it covers |
| Lost earnings | Wages or business income lost while you couldn’t work |
| Medical costs | Treatment, prescriptions, private consultations and equipment |
| Travel expenses | Journeys to medical appointments and treatment |
| Care and assistance | Help provided by family, friends or professional carers |
| Property damage | Repair or replacement of items damaged in the accident |
| Miscellaneous expenses | Aids, adaptations and other reasonable costs linked to your recovery |
Special damages vs general damages: what’s the difference?
The difference between special damages and general damages comes down to what each one compensates you for.
General damages compensate you for the injury itself, your pain, suffering and loss of amenity, valued against the Judicial College Guidelines. Special damages compensate you for the financial consequences of that injury, and unlike general damages, they must be individually proven with evidence.
| General damages | Special damages | |
| What it covers | Pain, suffering, loss of amenity | Financial losses caused by the injury |
| How it’s valued | Judicial College Guidelines | Receipts, payslips and other evidence |
| Do you need evidence? | Medical evidence of the injury | Yes, for every individual loss claimed |
You can get an instant estimate of your general damages using our personal injury claims calculator. Special damages are calculated separately and typically make up a significant part of your personal injury settlement figure.
What evidence do you need for each type of special damages?
Courts and insurers won’t take your word for a loss, however genuine it is. Each category of special damages needs its own supporting evidence and what counts as acceptable proof varies depending on what you’re claiming for.
Loss of earnings (employed claimants)
If you’re employed, proving lost earnings is usually the most straightforward category. You’ll typically need:
- Payslips covering the period before and after your accident
- Your employment contract
- A P60 or similar annual earnings summary
- Written confirmation from your employer of the dates you were absent
- Evidence of any lost bonus, commission or overtime you would reasonably have earned
Loss of earnings (self-employed claimants)
Self-employment makes this category significantly harder to prove, since there’s no employer to confirm your absence or your usual income. You’ll typically need:
- SA302 tax calculations or HMRC self-assessment summaries
- Business accounts prepared by an accountant
- Invoices issued both before and after the accident
- Bank statements showing trading income
- VAT returns, where applicable
Medical and treatment costs
- Receipts and invoices for any private treatment
- Prescription records
- A GP or specialist letter confirming the treatment was medically necessary
Travel expenses
- A mileage log for journeys to medical appointments
- Fuel receipts
- Parking receipts
- Taxi receipts
- Public transport tickets
Care and assistance
If family or friends have helped you with everyday tasks during your recovery (known as gratuitous care), it can be claimed as part of your special damages. You’ll need:
- Medical evidence confirming that care was reasonably needed
- A log of the hours provided and what the care involved
- An hourly rate assessment, calculated using a professional care rate as a starting point, discounted by around 25% to reflect the fact that no tax or National Insurance was paid on it. As a rough guide, this typically works out at around £12 to £14 per hour, though it varies by region and the complexity of the care involved.
Property damage and miscellaneous expenses
- Repair invoices or replacement receipts for damaged property
- Evidence that any equipment or adaptations, such as mobility aids, were reasonably required as a result of your injury
What happens if you can’t fully evidence a loss?
Missing paperwork doesn’t automatically mean your personal injury claim fails. However, it does make your losses harder to prove. Where documentation is incomplete, particularly for self-employed loss of earnings, the courts may accept a reconstruction of your financial position instead.
This typically involves:
- An accountant preparing a report based on the records that do exist
- Averaging your income over several years to smooth out seasonal or year-to-year variation
- Cross-referencing your figures against industry benchmarks where appropriate
Reconstructed evidence is generally accepted but it carries less weight than contemporaneous records.
Providing everything you have as early as possible, gaps and inconsistencies included, tends to work in your favour rather than against you:
- Your solicitor can identify problems while there’s still time to fix them
- The other side has less reason to dispute your claim later
- Settlement is typically reached faster
Holding evidence back or scrambling to find it once a claim is already underway almost always slows down the claims process and may invite closer scrutiny.
Why might your special damages be reduced?
Even with airtight evidence, your final settlement can still be lower than expected. This usually comes down to benefit recoupment, one of the least understood parts of a claim.
If you received benefits such as ESA, Universal Credit or Incapacity Benefit because of your injury, the DWP can recover some of that from your compensation before it’s paid out. This is managed by the Compensation Recovery Unit, which tracks benefits paid as a result of an accident someone else caused.
The logic is simple: you shouldn’t be compensated twice for the same loss. Before your claim settles, the insurer must obtain a certificate showing your recoverable benefits and that amount goes directly to the DWP.
Two things are worth knowing:
- It’s targeted, not blanket. A benefit like ESA is offset against your loss of earnings specifically, not against your general damages for pain and suffering.
- It isn’t a red flag. It doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong or that your claim is being challenged, it’s simply how overlapping compensation and benefits are reconciled.
Your solicitor will factor this in when valuing your personal injury claim so there are no surprises once your settlement is agreed.
Can you get special damages before your claim settles?
Yes, through what’s known as an interim payment. Where the other side has admitted liability, you don’t have to wait for your entire claim to settle before receiving money for losses you’re already facing. Serious injury claims can take years to resolve. An interim payment is an advance against your final settlement, calculated using the special damages you’ve already evidenced. So, if you’ve lost three months’ earnings, you can apply for that now rather than waiting for everything to be finalised together.
A few things worth knowing:
- Liability needs to be clear. The other side must have admitted responsibility, or it must be obvious you’d win at trial.
- There’s a cap. Courts generally limit an interim payment to around 80 to 90% of your likely minimum compensation, to avoid paying out more than you’ll ultimately be owed.
- It’s not extra money. It’s deducted from your final settlement so you’re paid sooner, not twice.
- It’s not taxable. Like the rest of your personal injury compensation, an interim payment isn’t subject to income tax.
If the other side refuses or offers too little, your solicitor can apply to the court under Civil Procedure Rule 25.7 for a payment order.
Illustrative example: how special damages add up in practice
The example below shows how the different categories of special damages combine in a real claim. It’s put together from stated assumptions about a self employed electrician who was unable to work for six months following a fall at work.
| Category | Basis | Amount |
| Lost earnings | Average monthly income of £3,200, evidenced through SA302 tax calculations and bank statements | £19,200 |
| Medical costs | Private physiotherapy sessions and an MRI scan, evidenced through invoices and receipts | £1,400 |
| Travel expenses | Mileage to 14 physiotherapy appointments and two hospital consultations, evidenced through a mileage log | £180 |
| Care and assistance | Six weeks of help during recovery, 10 hours a week at £13 per hour, minus the standard 25% discount | £585 |
| Property damage | Replacement cost of tools damaged in the fall, evidenced through receipts | £340 |
| Total special damages | £21,705 | |
This £21,705 figure is added to general damages for the injury itself. Together, they make up the full value of the personal injury claim.
Speak to a personal injury solicitor today
Getting special damages right takes more than listing your losses. It takes knowing what evidence will hold up, and gathering it before gaps become a problem. That’s the kind of detail we build into every personal injury claim from day one.
- Your claim is led by one senior solicitor throughout, so nothing gets lost between handovers or repeated explanations.
- We’ve spent over 30 years helping injured people recover what they’re genuinely owed.
- Most claims handled on a No Win No Fee basis so there’s no upfront cost and nothing to pay if your claim doesn’t succeed
Call Nigel Askew Solicitors today on 01507 609027 and let’s talk through what your claim could genuinely be worth.