Green slips: Minister pledges to cut average costs from $643 to $500 a year

EXCLUSIVE: GREEN slips to drop from an average $643 a year to $500 a year, Better Regulation Minister has pledged, as long as CTP reforms upper house.

Government statistics reveal that minor injury claims have risen substantially across parts of Sydney and across the state and everyone in NSW is paying for it through their premiums.

GREEN slips will drop from an average $643 a year to $500 a year, Better Regulation Minister Victor Dominello pledges, as long as his compulsory third party insurance reforms pass the upper house.

Mr Dominello has come under attack from the Law Society over his changes, which will bring in fixed payments for minor injury claims for people in car accidents. Lawyers argue they will disadvantage the injured.

Government statistics reveal that minor injury claims have risen substantially across parts of Sydney and across the state and everyone in NSW is paying for it through their premiums.

“Without reform, the average [CTP] price will be about $700,” Mr Dominello said yesterday.

“If we are able to get reform, we will be able to get the price down to about $500 and that’s conservative.”

Better Regulation Minister Victor Dominello.

It is understood Mr Dominello wants legislation that would include information on CTP bills showing motorists how much they were saving because of the reforms and how much their bill would have cost without them.

The minister’s proposed new laws would take lawyers out of a lot of claims, with the introduction of defined benefits for less serious injuries including whiplash, fractured thumbs and soft tissue injuries to the chest.

The government says that legally represented minor injury claims average between $95,000 and $110,000 each, which they say is more than the average claim size for all claims covering minor and major injuries in any other jurisdiction in Australia.

As a result, about $213 of every green slip premium, is now going towards these claims — up from $96 in 2008, an increase of 121 per cent.

The government says that, according to the State Insurance Regulatory Authority’s Scheme Performance Report in 2015, the number of reported road casualties declined by about 12 per cent from 2008 to 2013. Yet, in the same period, frequency of CTP claims being made by people injured in accidents has increased by 40 per cent.

The minister’s proposed new laws would take lawyers out of a lot of claims, with the introduction of defined benefits for less serious injuries including whiplash, fractured thumbs and soft tissue injuries to the chest.

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