How does CICA handle my application?

When we receive your completed application form, we will give you a personal reference number. This helps us identify your case quickly when you contact us. We will then contact the police and, if we need to, your doctor or the hospital that treated you, and any other organisations or people with relevant information about your claim.

If you need help or advice while we are working on your claim you can call the helpline on 0300 003 3601.

As soon as your case is registered we start our enquiries by gathering information from the police. This helps us assess whether you are eligible. When we get the police report we will decide whether we can take your application further. We may need more information before we can make a final decision. It takes time to collect this information but we work closely with the police and medical authorities to get it as quickly as possible. We will write to tell you about our progress.

How long will this take?

We may take a year or more to make a final decision. More complex cases can take longer, especially if they involve loss of earnings or future medical expenses.

Wherever possible, we settle applications by offering a single payment of compensation - a final award. But we can only do this if your medical condition and financial losses are clear. If there is likely to be a long delay in getting this information, but you are clearly eligible for compensation, we may be able to pay some of the money before the final award is made. We call this an interim payment and we would deduct it from your final payment.

What do you do with my personal information?

We keep and use the information you provide under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998. This means you can ask to see all the personal information we have about you.

What happens when CICA make their decision?

As soon as we make a decision, we will write to tell you or your representative what it is.

If we have reduced or refused an award, we will tell you why.

What do I do if I agree with CICA's decision?

If you wish to accept our decision, you will need to sign the acceptance form and return it to us.

We need your written acceptance of an award within 90 days of the date the decision was issued. If we do not get this within 90 days and you do not apply for a review, we may withdraw the award.

What if I disagree with CICA's decision?

Asking for a review

If you disagree with our decision, you can ask for it to be reviewed. We send you a review form and a guide to review procedures when we issue the first decision. The person who made the first decision will not make the review decision.

Appealing against the review decision

If you disagree with our review decision you can appeal to the Tribunals Service - Criminal Injuries Compensation (TS), who are independent of us. We will send you an appeal form and a guide to appeal procedures when we issue the review decision.

How are the awards paid?

We pay awards electronically to bank or building society accounts.  The Authority will only accept an instruction to pay the award to you or your solicitor. 

Special arrangements for payment of awards

We may sometimes need to make special arrangements for paying an award, to take account of the circumstances of the victim or other relevant issues.

For example, if the victim is a child we will generally retain the award in an interest-bearing bank account until the child is 18 years old. Where an adult is legally defined as not capable of managing their own affairs we will normally pay their award to the person who has legal authority to manage their finances or it may be paid into a trust for the applicant’s benefit.