You may be looking into manual handling claims because you’ve suffered an injury in a workplace accident that wasn’t your fault. If so, you may be able to receive thousands of pounds in compensation if you’re able to prove that your injury was caused by employer negligence.
We can help you claim compensation for injuries. And if you’d like to learn more about the claims process, this guide provides vital information.
Our advisors have years of experience with manual handling claims so, if you have any queries about the claims process, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re available 24/7, so we can give you free advice at any time using the details below.
- You can call us using the phone number above.
- You can write to us using the Live Chat function on your screen.
- Alternatively, you can contact us via our website.
Please read on to learn more about claiming for manual handling injuries using the services of No Win No Fee personal injury solicitors.
Select a Section
- What Is A Manual Handling Injury?
- What Are My Legal Rights In Relation To Manual Handling Tasks At Work?
- Can I Make A Manual Handling Claim If I Received No Training?
- What Are The Causes Of Manual Handling Accidents?
- What Are The Most Common Manual Handling Injuries?
- What Are Common Industries And Jobs At Risk Of Manual Handling Injuries?
- Is There An Average Compensation Payout For Manual Handling Claims?
- How Personal Injury Claims UK Can Help You
- Get More Help With Manual Handling Claims
What Is A Manual Handling Injury?
Manual handling is when you use your body to lift, move and carry objects. Making a successful manual handling claim depends on where and how this incident occurred, as well as who was responsible for it.
In many cases, a manual handling injury is classed as an accident at work, though in some instances it may be classed as a work-related upper limb disorder. The main distinguishing feature between the two is time. If your injury developed over time, it’d be classed as a disorder. If your injury happened in a one-off incident, it would be classed as a workplace accident.
As we’ll see below, these types of injuries could happen anywhere, from a construction site or a warehouse to an office. There are clear regulations in place that are designed to make sure you’re as safe as reasonably possible while performing these roles. Legislation that defines these regulations is called The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.
What Impact Could A Manual Handling Injury Have On A Person?
Manual handling injuries can vary in severity and type. They often affect the bones, joints, muscles and tendons and can lead to musculoskeletal disorders.
The NHS states that over 20 million people in the UK suffer from this type of disorder, which is almost a third of the population. Over 30 million working days are lost due to workers suffering from a type of musculoskeletal condition.
Sprains, strains, and fractures can all be caused by a manual handling accident and can lead to a musculoskeletal disorder such as arthritis, which can have long-term implications for people, causing a range of disabilities.
According to the HSE, parts of the body most likely affected by these disorders can include:
- The lower back and neck
- The upper limbs, including the shoulders, forearms, wrists and hands
- Hips, legs, knees, ankles, and feet
Manual handling injuries could have an impact on your mental health as they could cause chronic pain resulting in continuous low mood and prevent you from performing your role at work. As such, you may have to change jobs either permanently or temporarily which could cause a substantial amount of stress and anxiety.
Furthermore, you might be unable to enjoy certain hobbies causing an impact on your overall quality of life.
What Are My Legal Rights In Relation To Manual Handling Tasks At Work?
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 is a piece of legislation that works in tandem with The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.
These may sound similar, but this is a very important piece of legislation, as it outlines your employer’s responsibility to assess the risks of certain tasks, including manual handling tasks, before asking you to perform them.
Some examples of your rights under this legislation include:
- Your employer has a duty to avoid hazardous manual handling operations when it is reasonably practicable.
- You’re also entitled to request a risk assessment to make sure that a task is safe before performing it.
- Employers must also reduce the manual handling risks presented in a task where possible, for example, splitting a heavy load between two boxes instead of asking an employee to carry it all in one.
What Should An Employer’s Risk Assessment Consist Of?
As mentioned in the section above, your employer should undertake a risk assessment before asking you to perform a manual handling task. But what does a risk assessment entail?
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s regulatory body for workplace safety and health. They have provided some guidance on what your employer should consider when they fill out a risk assessment for a manual handling task:
- How big the object is, and how heavy it is.
- How far you will have to carry the object.
- Whether or not the workspace is cluttered or walkways are obstructed, and how this will affect the task.
- Whether the task could be made easier with equipment or aids, such as a pallet truck or forklift.
This is one of your employer’s legal obligations for manual handling tasks. Before your employer can ask you to do the task, they need to be satisfied that the risk assessment has deemed it safe. They also need to make sure that they can mitigate any risks brought to light by the risk assessment.
The HSE advises that if providing mechanical lifting aids, such as a hoist, isn’t reasonably practicable, employers could reduce manual handling risks by:
- Smaller, lighter and easier to grasp loads.
- Breaking up larger loads into smaller ones.
- Workplace modifications to reduce carry distance, twisting and the need to lift things either from floor level or above shoulder height.
- Changing the work routine. As previously discussed, injuries could be suffered due to repetitive movements.
- Environmental improvements, such as more space, better flooring and extra lights.
- Provide adequate training to anyone expected to handle objects.
Can I Make A Manual Handling Claim If I Received No Training?
By the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) definition, manual handling means using hand or bodily force to transport or support a load. Manual handling operations include:
- Lifting
- Putting down
- Pushing
- Pulling
- Carrying
- Moving.
The exact manual handling training you should have will vary depending on the nature of your job and the items that require handling. However, your employer needs to provide it, if it is needed to do your job safely and to comply with health and safety legislation. Training should also be tailored to the employee.
The HSE states that training should cover:
- Risk factors of the task and how injuries could occur.
- How to use mechanical aids (if relevant).
- Good handling techniques.
- Work systems that are relevant to the tasks and environment.
- Practical work and assessment so the trainer can identify improper manual handling techniques and put them right.
What Injuries Could A Lack Of Training Cause?
You could suffer various injuries due to no or poor manual handling training at work. These include:
- Brain injury because an object fell on you due to being stacked incorrectly.
- Back injury due to no training on lifting techniques.
- Shoulder injury because the object was too heavy for one person.
- Toe and foot injuries because the object was dropped due to being too heavy for one person to carry.
- Finger injury due to fingers becoming trapped, such as in a faulty roll cage.
- Soft tissue injuries because of stretching for an object above shoulder height
What Are The Causes Of Manual Handling Accidents?
You may be wondering, “what are the different manual handling injury types?” Many different types of injuries could cause you to claim, such as a knee injury. This section will highlight different incidents and oversights, that may have occurred due to your employer, that could lead you to claim.
- You may be asked to carry a load or object that is too heavy, large or difficult to grasp.
- Sufficient safety precautions may not be in place for you to lift something. For instance, you may be looking into manual handling claims because you were asked to lift an object, even though you needed another person’s assistance with it.
- You may have slipped while carrying something because of an uneven floor or exposed wiring that you employer was aware of. This could cause a wide variety of injuries at work, such as a toe injury. The employer should reduce or remove these potential hazards.
- You may not have the required experience or training to lift a particular object and were asked to carry out the task regardles. Therefore, you may be reading about manual handling personal injury claims because you suffered a type of back injury, such as an injury to the spine, after carrying something incorrectly through no fault of your own.
What Are The Most Common Manual Handling Injuries?
Common manual handling injuries include:
- Back injuries
- Sprains and strains
- Hand injuries
- Foot injuries
- Musculoskeletal injuries
- Slip, trip and fall injuries
These are some of the common injuries because manual handling involves stretching and putting strain and stress on your body due to the physical nature of the role.
If you believe you’ve suffered a manual handling injury at work, seek medical advice. Though we can’t help with this, we can offer free legal advice. Our advisors are ready whenever you need them.
What Are Common Industries And Jobs At Risk Of Manual Handling Injuries?
The HSE also provide statistics on employee work-related injuries reported by employers under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Danegour Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). Employers are required to report certain workplace accidents and injuries to the HSE under RIDDOR.
The HSE states that in 2022/2023 there were 10,230 non-fatal employee injuries reported under RIDDOR that were caused by handling, lifting or carrying. Of these reports, some of the most common industries that experienced these manual handling injuries included:
- Human health and social work activities: 2,161
- Manufacturing: 1,983.
- Transportation and storage: 1,613.
- Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles: 1,275.
- Construction: 663.
The next few sections will examine how employers can prevent manual handling accidents across different injuries, as well as explain how failing to take these measures could result in employees suffering a workplace injury.
Is There An Average Compensation Payout For Manual Handling Claims?
When making manual handling claims, there are two potential heads of claim:
- General damages relate to the psychological and physical damage caused by the injury.
- Special damages, meanwhile, relate to the financial losses suffered by this.
However, if you don’t receive any general damages compensation, it means that you won’t receive any compensation for the claim. This is because it would be deemed that the third party in question was not liable for your injuries.
Regarding the amount of compensation you could receive for a manual handling injury compensation claim, guidance from the Judicial College can help. They analyse payouts from manual handling claims and compare them to the severity of the injury. Therefore, they’ve built potential compensation brackets for many different types of injuries.
We use these brackets to provide you with as accurate an estimate as possible regarding what you could receive from manual handling compensation claims. Please see below for a series of injuries and their relevant compensation brackets. The Judicial College provides these figures.
| Area of Injury | Severity | Amount of Compensation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neck | (b) Moderate (i) | £23,460 to £36,120 | Injuries in this bracket include dislocations or fractures leading to severe and immediate symptoms which could lead to requiring spinal fusion. |
| Neck | (b) Moderate (ii) | £12,900 to £23,460 | This bracket includes soft tissue injuries or severe disc lesions leading to a serious limitation of movement or recurring pain and discomfort. |
| Back | (a) Severe (ii) | £69,600 to £82,980 | Injuries in this bracket include ones that lead to nerve root damage with an associated loss of sensation, impaired bowel and bladder function and sexual difficulties. |
| Shoulder | (a) Severe | £18,020 to £45,070 | Shoulder injuries in this bracket cause severe symptoms that include damage to the brachial plexus. |
| Shoulder | (c) Moderate | £7,410 to £11,980 | Injuries in this bracket include suffering a frozen shoulder, severely limiting movement for about two years. |
| Injuries to the Pelvis and Hip | (b) Moderate | £24,950 to £36,770 | An injury in this bracket means that the significant injury to the hip or pelvis did not cause a major permanent disability with any future risk of further damage not great. |
| Elbow | (a) A Severely Disabling Injury | £36,770 to £51,460 | Elbow injuries in this bracket are of a severely disabling nature. |
| Wrist | (c) Less severe injuries | £11,820 to £22,990 | Injuries in this bracket are less severe than more disabling ones, but still cause some form of permanent disability such as, for instance, persisting stiffness and pain. |
| Hand | (h) Moderate Hand Injury | £5,260 to £12,460 | Injuries in this bracket include penetrating wounds, crush injuries and deep lacerations. |
| Fingers | (f) Severe Fractures to Fingers | Up to £34,480 | This bracket includes severe finger fractures that could lead to partial amputations and an impairment of grip. |
If you can’t see your injuries in the compensation table above, or you’d just like your injuries valued for free, why not call?
How Personal Injury Claims UK Can Help You
You may be wondering, “what are the benefits of using a No Win No Fee personal injury lawyer when making manual handling claims?” A personal injury solicitor or lawyer can help you build your case by gathering information and evidence about your injury.
A conditional fee agreement between you and your lawyer means that they’ve agreed to provide their services on a No Win No Fee basis. Advantages of specifically using the services of No Win No Fee solicitors include:
- Not having to pay legal fees during the process
- Not having to pay legal fees if your claim is unsuccessful
- Your solicitor taking a legally-capped amount of compensation as payment for the legal fees. They will take this if your claim has been successful.
Another important aspect of claiming is making sure that you do so within the personal injury claims time limit. In most instances, you need to claim within three years of the injury or three years from you becoming aware of the injury being caused by negligence. This can affect your ability to make manual handling claims as you wouldn’t be able to claim unless you began proceedings within this timescale.
However, there are exceptions to this time limit. Call us if you’d like to know how much time you might have left to claim.
Get In Touch
If you have any other questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact our advisors. They are available 24/7, offer free legal advice and can tell you in just a few minutes if you can make a manual handling claim. Our panel of solicitors work on a No Win No Fee basis. Their experience could be vital in you receiving compensation.
- You can call us using the phone number above.
- You can write to us using the Live Chat function on your screen.
- Alternatively, you can contact us via our website.
Get More Help With Manual Handling Claims
To know more about making manual handling claims, please use the links below.
To learn about types of reportable incidents in the workplace, visit the HSE website.
The HSE also have a brief guide to manual handling at work.
If you have any more questions about manual handling claims, you can check out our dedicated FAQ page here.
To know more about manual handling claims, please contact our team for free legal advice at a time that works for you.