Sexual Abuse Compensation Claims

This is a guide to claiming sexual abuse compensation, including for historical sexual abuse. Sexual abuse can cause physical and mental injuries. You may be entitled to make a criminal injury compensation claim.

Sexual abuse compensation guide

If you were physically or psychologically injured because of sexual abuse, you might be eligible to claim compensation. You can claim compensation for recent sexual abuse or for historic sexual abuse that may have happened during your childhood. You could claim compensation through the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority (CICA).

For free legal advice about claiming compensation, please call our helpline. Your call will be in the strictest of confidence. Moreover, our advisors understand that abuse is a sensitive subject so we will communicate with the utmost professionalism. If we can see that you are eligible to claim compensation, you could be passed to a lawyer from our panel to work on your claim.

Please get in touch to see if you can claim compensation for sexual abuse:

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What Is Sexual Abuse?

Before we look at how to claim sexual abuse compensation, let’s define what sexual abuse is. Sexual abuse is forcing someone to participate in unwanted sexual activity.

Any sexual contact between an adult and someone under the age of 16 is sexual abuse. This is because the age of consent in each of the UK nations is 16.

There are a number of different sexual offences that could be claimed for through the CICA. For example:

Rape. This is when a perpetrator penetrated the vagina, anus or mouth of another person. Someone who does not have a penis could be found guilty of rape if they assisted the perpetrator in the attack.
Sexual assault. This is when a perpetrator touches someone else in a sexual manner without having the consent to do so. They could use a part of their body or an object to do this.
Assault by penetration. This is where someone uses a part of their body or an object to sexually penetrate someone’s vagina or anus without consent.

Victims of sexual abuse may suffer physical injuries, such as tears from penetration, fractures or an STD. However, victims of sexual abuse often experience lifelong psychological harm. For example, the victim may experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or depression. The sexual abuse may affect the victim’s personal life, studies or work.

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 outlines sexual offences, including rape and child sexual offences. Read on for more information on how compensation can be pursued.

Can Victims Of Sexual Abuse Get Compensation?

You might be eligible to claim sexual abuse compensation if recent or historical sexual abuse has caused you harm. Compensation for sexually abused victims can be claimed through the CICA. The CICA is a government-sponsored agency that aims to compensate victims and others who experienced physical or psychological injuries because of a violent crime.

If you make a criminal injury claim, our panel of solicitors can work hard on your behalf to negotiate with the CICA and make sure you receive the sexual abuse compensation you deserve.

Alternative Ways To Claim Sexual Abuse Compensation

If you wish to claim compensation for sexual abuse, you may be eligible to make a civil claim against your abuser. However, this will only be appropriate if you know who the perpetrator is and they have the funds available to pay you compensation for the harm you were caused.

On the other hand, you could claim compensation from an institution that failed to safeguard you. For example, you may claim compensation for historic sexual abuse against a local authority if you were sexually abused in a children’s home or sexually abused in a school run by the council, because the local authority did not take enough precautions to protect you.

These sorts of claims can be complex. Please feel free to call us to see if you can claim sexual abuse compensation.

How Long Does It Take To Receive Victim Compensation?

The time limit to claim sexual abuse compensation through the CICA is generally two years from the date that you reported the incident to the police. This should usually be right away as soon as it happens. However, mitigating circumstances might apply that mean that this isn’t possible. In these cases, the CICA may be able to consider a claim for an incident where there was a delay in reporting to the police.

Furthermore, you may have reported the incident (such as historical sexual abuse) to the police straight away, but extenuating circumstances stop you from being able to claim within the 2-year time limit. In this case, you might be able to claim outside of the usual time limit.

The CICA released statistics that showed that 72% of cases had a review decision within 6 months. For more information on how long claims take and the time limit you have in which to start a sexual abuse compensation claim, speak with an advisor today.

How Much Compensation Will I Get For Sexual Abuse In The UK?

You may wonder how much compensation for sexual abuse victims is paid. You can receive these types of compensation if your claim through the CICA succeeds:

Compensation for physical or mental injuries.
Compensation for loss of earnings if the injuries mean you could not work for some time. You will only be able to claim for loss of earnings if you lost earnings or earning potential for at least 28 weeks after the incident. This will not be backdated to the date of the accident.
Special expense payments, which cover costs related to the injuries. This can include necessary medical expenses. You will only be able to claim compensation for special expenses if you lost earnings or earning potential for at least 28 weeks after the incident. This will be backdated to the date of the accident.

The compensation that the CICA pays out for physical or mental injuries is based on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 tariff. We used these tariff amounts to create the compensation brackets in the table below.

Category Of Injury	Notes	Compensation
Sexual Assault	Sexual assault leading to a mental illness which is permanently disabling. It has been diagnosed. Causing severe mental illness.	B13 £27,000
Sexual Assault	As above but causing moderate mental illness.	B12 £22,000
Sexual Assault	Sexual assaults which results in a serious internal injury.	B12 £22,000
Sexual Assault	Non consensual penetration of the vagina, mouth or anus by an assailant. Two attackers or more.	B10 £13,500
Sexual Assault	As above but where there is one attacker.	B9 £11,000
Sexual Assault	Where there was a pattern of frequent and repetitive abuse over a period of 3 years or longer.	B8 £8,200
Sexual Assault	As above but where the abuse lasted for up to three years.	B7 £6,600
Sexual Assault	Sexual assault where there is severe but non-penile penetrative or there are oral/ genital actions.	B4 £3,300
Sexual Assault	Serious sexual physical acts under the clothes which are not penetrative.	B3 £2,000
Sexual Assault	Minor and non penetrating sexual acts over the clothes.	B1 £1,000

You can use the table to estimate how much compensation you could claim for your injuries, but this table does not take special expenses into consideration. An advisor can help you value your compensation claim after speaking to you in depth. So please get in touch with us today, and we can value your criminal injuries compensation claim based on your circumstances.

No Win No Fee Sexual Abuse Claims

If our panel of solicitors support you in making a sexual abuse claim, they can handle your claim on a No Win No Fee basis. Using this kind of agreement has numerous benefits. A Conditional Fee Agreement is a popular kind of No Win No Fee agreement.

This means that you won’t make any upfront or ongoing fees to your lawyer to secure their services. You generally won’t pay anything to your lawyer if your claim is not a success. If you’re awarded compensation, you will pay a success fee which is deducted from your compensation payment.

Please get in touch with us today to see if you can make a criminal injury compensation claim for abuse. If we believe you can claim compensation, we can appoint our panel of solicitors to work on your case.

You can: