What do the latest earnings figures mean for personal injury claims and future care costs?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the latest earnings figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) on 22 October 2026 which is the official and most authoritative source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. The ONS substantially increased the survey sample in 2026 from 174,000 records in 2025 to 197,000 in 2026, a 13.2% increase. All stakeholders to a personal injury claim (claimants, compensators, experts and case managers) use this data to calculate the value of periodical payments and assess future losses in particular care-related costs.
The difference in median pay can be summarised as follows;
Measure | 2025 | 2026 | Change + / - |
Median weekly pay – full time | £766.60 | £811.20 | +5.82% |
Median hourly rate pay, full time (excluding overtime) | £19.68 | £20.81 | +5.74% |
Median annual pay, full-time employees in their job for a least 1 year | £39,157 | £40,911 | +4.50% |
The key points from the data are:
Median weekly earnings for all employees increased by 4.9% which is lower than the increase for full-time employees. The ONS explain the reasons for this are a higher proportion of part-time employees in April 2026 when compared with April 2025 and a decrease in average hours worked by part-time employees.
Median weekly earnings for part-time employees increased by 2.9%.
London was the highest region for weekly full-time earnings growth (8.2%) followed by the South West (6.4%) and the South East (6%). The region that saw the slowest growth was the East Midlands (4%), followed by the North West (4.1%).
Public-sector pay grew faster at 6.5% when compared with the private sector at 5.5%.
Of particular interest to personal injury practitioners, earnings for full-time employees in the “caring leisure and other service occupations” grew by 5.4%, which was the second largest growth figure by occupation. The top occupation for growth was “managers, directors and senior officials” at 6.7%.
ASHE 6115
The care-worker data will now be published under SOC20 classifications 6135 and 6136 to account for earlier changes to occupational classifications. The data set provides earnings estimates for care worker, home carers and recognises a ‘care package’ will involve different types of carers and hourly rates and so it is therefore not appropriate to use an average hourly rate. For the majority of PPOs, the relevant percentiles are the 75th, 80th and 90th, which this update will focus on.
Analysis of this data is below:
Table 26.5a – Hourly Pay – Gross for full-time employees
Percentile | 2025 revised figures | 026 provisional figures | Change + / - |
75th | £15.50 | £16.11 | +3.94% |
80th | £16.20 | £16.87 | +4.13% |
90th | £18.56 | £19.23 | +3.61% |
The annual gross pay figures can be summarised as follows:
Table 26.7a– Annual Pay – Gross for full-time employees
Percentile | 2025 revised figures | 026 provisional figures | Change + / - |
75th | £29,263 | £30,801 | +5.12% |
80th | £30,722 | £32,421 | +5.38% |
90th | £35,402 | £37,055 | +4.56% |
The above increases are broadly in line with the increases observed in ‘median’ pay.
While ASHE remains the best measure for calculating the cost of a care regime, it is important to bear in mind that care provider rates for complex care regimes tend to be at least 11% higher than the ASHE data.
Weightmans will review and update this analysis, if necessary, following publication of the 2026 revised figures.
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