Compensation Britain: Council office worker gets £23,000 for bruised bottom after slipping and postman gets £10,000 for falling off his delivery bike

A council is paying thousands of pounds to workers who suffered slight injuries following minor accidents while Royal Mail has given nearly £10,000 to a postman who fell off his bike.

The claims have been branded 'spurious' and reveal the extent to which the compensation culture has crept across Britain.

The council worker got more than £23,000 in damages when they fell over while the postman received nearly £10,000 when his chain snapped.

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council had to pay the unnamed worker who 'slipped on an office floor' causing 'bruising to the rear'.



Reigate and Banstead Borough Council paid £23,130 to an unnamed worker who slipped and suffered bruising to their rear

A Freedom of Information request revealed they had received £23,130 in compensation after the accident in 2009. The worker was one of six people suing the same council for thousands of pounds.


Other claims include an office worker 'exposed to a piercing noise from a telephone'; a binman who hurt his foot after slipping on an ungritted road; a cemetery worker who hurt his head and arm after falling from a dump truck' and a binman who lost his thumb on a lorry.'

PC SUING BURGLARY VICTIM FOR FAILING TO ENSURE SHE WAS 'REASONABLY SAFE'



Mike Cunningham, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, spoke out after Pc Kelly Jones was criticised for taking legal action against a petrol station owner after she tripped on a kerb answering a 999 call.

It comes after Home Secretary Theresa May stepped into the row over the weekend by ordering a review of all such compensation cases involving the police.


Pc Jones is making a claim against Steve Jones, 50, the owner of Nuns' Bridges Filling Station in Thetford, Norfolk, for failing to ensure she was 'reasonably safe' when she attended a suspected break-in in August 2012.

After her astonishing claim became public, her own Chief Constable, Phil Gormley, criticised it as ‘surprising and disappointing’.

Mr Cunningham told ITV's Daybreak programme: 'It is, to me, wholly inappropriate that police officers claim compensation against victims of crime, people to whom we have responded in order to help them.

'However, there are occasions, and I think many members of the public would accept and understand this, when an officer is badly assaulted on duty and loses earnings as a result; then it may be that they should have access to the criminal injuries compensation scheme along with everybody else.'





John Staples, 43, of Reigate, said: 'It's all very well if you get a serious injury and someone is obviously at fault, but how can bruising your bum be worth £23,000?

'Most people wouldn't even think to claim if they slipped over and landed on their bottom - it's compensation culture gone mad.'

Jonathan Isaby, Political Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'These shocking figures demonstrate how the compensation culture has now got completely out of hand, with often spurious claims resulting in taxpayers being landed with bills for thousands of pounds.

'A good number of these claims will either have been nobody’s fault or could have been avoided with a bit of common sense: at the end of the day, accidents do happen.

'Every penny the council has to spend on settling these claims means less money spent on frontline services.'

The payout to the Post Office worker was made after he hit the ground, sustaining a fractured left shoulder as he went on his rounds in Fordham, Essex.

The chain on his bike snapped as he cycled through the village and he also suffered damage to his knee.

He was awarded £9,500 in an out-of-court settlement with Royal Mail after the company admitted it had failed in its duty of care.

The unnamed man from Colchester was off work for several weeks following the accident.

His solicitors, Simpson Millar, said: 'The bicycle's chain had been defective and was therefore a cause of the postal worker's accident.'

Royal Mail said in a statement: 'It is regrettable an employee was injured. Royal Mail regularly inspects its equipment and prides itself on having a good safety record.'

Earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported that almost £800,000 had been awarded to families in Lancashire over the last five years after they sued schools over falls, slips, trapped fingers and other mishaps.

Campaigners have hit out at this growing compensation culture, warning the spiralling council payouts mean less money is spent on education.

The figures come a month after it emerged that compensation for teachers injured at work broke through the £30million barrier for the first time in 2012.

A request under the Freedom of Information Act revealed there were 100 successful claims for injuries sustained by pupils on Lancashire school property between 2006-7 and 2011-12.

The resulting payouts added up to £783,831.

One pupil won almost £50,000 after hurting his hand climbing a gate, while another received more than £6,000 for cutting a leg sliding down a handrail.



A postman fell off his bike in Fordham, Essex (pictured), after his chain snapped. Royal Mail admitted it had failed in its duty of care

A third was awarded £12,519 after they fell while climbing a tree. In another case a pupil was awarded £2,500 after pricking their thumb on a needle.

There were multiple payouts for hands trapped in doors, with the highest payout in this category amounting to £7,695.

The largest single award was £100,000, given to a pupil who was injured when a cupboard fell off a wall.

Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, warned that schools were becoming so 'risk-conscious' that they wrapped children up 'in cotton wool.'

Bob Stott, of Lancashire County Council, said: 'When the council receives a claim for compensation it has to make a decision regarding its liability, and defend or settle the case as appropriate.

'This may lead to a compensation payment being made.'