Why does Insurance company want to see my P60s for making a claim?

DiamondC

Had a car accident last year which wasn't our fault. Myself, husband and 2 children were in the car. I had 2 weeks off work due to injuries and my husband a week. We are claiming for loss of earnings. The opposing insurance company have asked to see our wage slips from before the accident and afterwards so they can see how much we have lost. We have provided these along with a letter from each of our employers confirming the time we had off work and the wages we lost. Everything was going along fine until now out of the blue our acting Solicitors have said the opposing solicitors/insurance company have asked for my husbands last 3 P60's. When we asked why they said the other insurance company want to carry out a 'forensic investigation into my husbands tax' and they couldnt tell us anything else as that's what they've just been asked of. I'm totally confused, why do they need to go through all that for a claim of approx £250 in lost wages and what's my husband tax got to do with it? They haven't asked anything of me and mine is a bigger claim. Anyone else had this?
Many thanks

Quentin

They want to check out the claim is correct.


It will be quicker to just comply than to fight their request (unless they reveal something you don't want them to see)

agrinnall

The latest P60 could make sense, and possibly the previous one if the accident was in the early part of 2014, but I can see no possible reason for wanting the 2012-3 one other than trying to get out of paying if it can't be provided. It may indeed be simpler and quicker to just supply them but the request seems to be highly dubious.

OnanTheBarbarian

For a low value loss of earnings claim for a PAYE employee, wanting 3 years of P60 documents when presumably wages slips have been provided for a 3 month period either side of the period of loss and a supporting letter from the employer confirming the period of absence, this seems excessive on behalf of the third party insurer.

Trouble is, all the wrangling and argument of there is no good reason why this level of documentation should be provided when reasonable proof has been presented will just cause delays if your solicitors tell the other side to stuff it and litigate the claim.

So unless there is something murky going on, it may be best to present the requested evidence or you instruct your solicitors to just turn up the wick with the other side and threaten court proceedings.

Usually, combing over years of accounts records etc is the norm for self-employed claimants, but not PAYE.

martinsurrey

The insurance payout is outside the scope of tax so they give you £100 you keep £100.

that means they will payout what you have lost (the net amount you would have received from your employer after tax)

to calculate this correctly, they will need a p60 for the year the payout is in (so 2 if it straddles a tax year end) as your payslips do not show your marginal tax rate for a year.

Example,

You earn £3000 a month, so £36000 a year basic, you claim half a months lost earnings, or £1500, based on payslips alone this looks like £1020, being 68% (20% tax 12% NI) of £1500.

However in one month of the year you get a £20,000 bonus, taking your pre injury earnings to £56,000 making you a 40% tax payer, meaning your real loss due to the injury was £870, being 58% (40% tax 2% NI) of £1500.

this will be shown on the P60.

why they need 3 p60's I don't know...

InsideInsurance

Agree with others that it seems excessive but as to 3? Well insurers like averages and 3 is a number you will see often in requests for evidence - we'd always ask for 3 months of payslips prior to the period of claim for example.

Marktheshark

A tax investigation ?
Tell them to go foxtrot oscar and you will see them at court.

martinsurrey

Marktheshark wrote: »

A tax investigation ?
Tell them to go foxtrot oscar and you will see them at court.

and then the court will ask to see them to see what loss the OP has suffered after tax.

then when it comes to costs, the insurance company will explain that they offered to settle in full, and asked for the documentation to calculate it and the OP could be landed with all the costs.

DiamondC

Thank you for all your replies. The accident was only Dec last year. Will just have to do what they say then and provide the 3 P60's although the earlier 2 are from a different job with different hours and wages to current job so tax amounts would be different anyway. Just don't like the idea of someone going through it all (no, nothing to hide we're both PAYE), plus if this was normal procedure then why not ask for mine aswell. They already have wage slips for months before and after the accident plus letters from both our employers. Will let you know if I hear anything else

lisyloo

If you have nothing to hide then just provide it.
The only thing I can think is that it's random and getting past history proves that the income wasn't suddenly inflated for the claim - but that's guessing.

I'd just give it and assuem it's random.
Being difficult about it (not saying you were) would just delay things.