When a family member or friend gives up their time, sometimes years of it, to look after you after a serious injury, that sacrifice has a real financial value, and English law recognises it. This is known as a gratuitous care claim, and it lets you recover compensation for unpaid help you have reasonably needed because of your injuries, calculated by reference to the cost of paid care. In a serious injury claim, gratuitous care is often one of the largest single elements of the final settlement, not a minor add-on.
What is gratuitous care, and can you really claim for it?
Yes, you can. English law has recognised this since the 1970s, when the courts confirmed in Donnelly v Joyce that an injured person can recover the value of care provided to them free of charge by a relative or friend, as part of their own compensation. It does not matter that no money actually changed hands between you and your carer. The law treats the need for that care as a genuine consequence of the accident.
Gratuitous care typically covers things like help with washing, dressing and eating, preparing meals, housework, driving you to medical appointments, and general supervision if you are not safe to be left alone. It sits alongside other financial losses in your claim, such as lost earnings, and you can read more about how the personal injury claim process works more broadly. Gratuitous care is simply one of the heads of loss assessed within it, and in a serious or catastrophic injury claim it is usually calculated with input from a care expert rather than estimated informally.
How gratuitous care is valued
There is a fairly standard method, even though every case is assessed on its own facts. Your solicitor, often with input from a care expert, works out roughly how many hours of extra help you have needed each week, then applies an hourly rate based on what suitable paid care would cost for similar support. A discount, commonly around 25%, is then taken off that commercial rate. The discount reflects the fact that unpaid family care does not carry the same tax, National Insurance, agency overheads or travel costs as commercial care.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Hours | Work out how many extra hours of help you needed each week, above what would have been normal before the accident |
| 2. Rate | Apply an hourly rate based on local commercial care charges for similar support |
| 3. Discount | Deduct a suitable percentage, commonly around 25%, to reflect the costs a family carer does not incur |
| 4. Total | Multiply the discounted rate by the hours, then by the number of weeks or years the care has been, or will be, needed |
A rough example helps make this concrete. Ten hours a week at a commercial rate of £20 an hour comes to £200. After a 25% discount, that is £150 a week, or around £7,800 over a year. Multiplied across several years of a serious injury claim, this single head of loss can run into a significant sum.
Why the compensation is legally meant for your carer
This is where gratuitous care claims differ from most other heads of loss. In Hunt v Severs, the House of Lords confirmed that although you, as the injured claimant, formally recover this money from the defendant, you hold it on trust for whoever actually provided the care. In practice, that usually means passing it on to the family member or friend who gave up their time.
This matters for two reasons. First, it is a recognition, in financial terms at least, of what your carer has genuinely given up, whether that is paid work, free time or their own wellbeing. Second, if you are setting up a personal injury trust to protect a larger settlement, for example to avoid it affecting means-tested benefits, the gratuitous care element should be discussed carefully with your solicitor.
The one situation where you cannot claim
There is a significant exception. If the person who cared for you is also the person who caused your accident, for example a partner who was driving the car at the time of a crash, you cannot normally claim for the care they personally provided. The reasoning is straightforward once you see it. The defendant would effectively be paying themselves, since the money would be held on trust for the very person responsible for the claim in the first place.
This does not affect your right to claim for every other element of your injury, and it does not prevent a claim for care provided by someone else, such as another relative who stepped in.
What counts as “above and beyond”, and how to prove it
Not every bit of help a family member gives you counts. The care being claimed needs to go beyond what that person would ordinarily have done for you anyway, or the usual give and take of family life. A partner doing the weekly shop they always did is not a loss caused by the accident. A partner doing the shop, plus washing and dressing you, plus driving you to three appointments a week, plainly is.
Because this is among the heads of loss most often challenged in a personal injury case, decent evidence matters.
- A day-to-day care diary kept by you or your carer, ideally started soon after the accident
- A witness statement from the person who provided the care, describing what they actually did
- Independent medical or care expert evidence confirming the level of care was reasonably necessary
- Being accurate rather than generous with the hours claimed, since overstating this can undermine your credibility on the rest of your claim too, as our note on fundamental dishonesty in personal injury claims explains
Future care: when gratuitous family care is not the long-term answer
For a short recovery, ongoing family care usually makes sense for everyone. For a catastrophic or lifelong injury, it often does not, and your solicitor and any care expert involved will think this through carefully. A family member who has provided intensive care for two years while a claim is resolved may not be able to sustain that for the next 30, whether because of their own age, health, work, family responsibilities or the toll it takes.
Courts and insurers both recognise this. Claims involving long-term future care frequently move toward a mix of continued family involvement and professional, paid support, costed and valued separately within your serious injury claim rather than assumed to continue indefinitely for free. Getting this balance right, rather than rushed, is one of the reasons these claims often take real time to settle properly.
Frequently asked questions
A few of the questions we are asked most often about claiming for unpaid care.
Can I claim for care given by a friend, not just family?
Yes. The principle applies to anyone who has provided genuine, unpaid care because of your injury, whether that is a partner, parent, sibling, or a close friend who stepped in.
Do I have to pay my carer back from the compensation?
The compensation for this element of your claim is legally held on trust for the carer, so yes, in principle it should be passed on to them. The practicalities can be discussed with your solicitor, especially where the wider settlement is being structured carefully.
What if my carer already helped me with some things before the accident?
Only the additional care caused by your injury counts. Help that was already part of your normal family life beforehand is not included.
Can I claim for emotional support, not just physical help?
A gratuitous care claim generally covers practical tasks, assistance and supervision rather than emotional support on its own, though the broader impact on you and your family may be reflected elsewhere in your claim.
How far back can I claim for care already provided?
You can claim for reasonable care provided since the date of the accident, which is one reason it helps to start keeping a record of hours and tasks as early as possible.
Does receiving this money affect my carer’s own benefits or tax position?
This depends on individual circumstances, so it is worth raising with your solicitor directly if your carer receives means-tested benefits, or if there may be tax or financial planning issues, before any settlement is finalised.
Talk to Mark Reynolds Solicitors
If a family member or friend has given up their time to look after you following a serious injury, that deserves to be properly recognised and valued, not treated as an afterthought in your claim. We act on a no win, no fee basis and will talk you through what the care you have received is likely to be worth, and how to start keeping the right evidence from today. Contact our team for a free, no obligation conversation. We have offices in Liverpool, Runcorn and Warrington, and we are happy to talk whenever you are ready.