Cost of home accidents
Re-valuation of home accidents
Nationally almost 4,000 deaths and 2.7 million attendees at hospital each year are the result of a home accident
The total annual cost of home accident casualties who are treated for their injuries at hospital - around 2.7million people each year - is estimated to be £45.63billion (£45,630million), based on an average cost of £16,900 per victim.
This figure does not include the cost of home accident deaths, which number in excess of 4,000 every year, and for which the cost per fatality is estimated at £1.61million. And it does not include the cost of people who seek GP treatment after a home accident. So in fact, the true cost to society of accidents at home is likely to be far higher.
RoSPA commissioned TRL to conduct the latest valuation research, which updates a previous report from 1996, when the cost of home accidents was estimated to be around £25.62billion. The cost findings are based on: lost contribution to the economy (lost output); the value of avoidance of injury (the amount the community would be prepared to pay to avoid the chance of an injury happening); and the cost of medical, Social Security and other support services. Costs to the individual and long-term care are not included.
To put the home accident valuation in context: a report published by the Department for Transport earlier this year estimated the value of preventing road accidents in 2009 to be £30billion (when accidents reported and unreported to the police were considered).