Ogden multipliers in a schedule of loss

The inputs everything depends on

• Age at the pleaded date — the Tables are set out by age at the date of trial. Ages between the printed integers are dealt with by linear interpolation between the two adjacent rows.
• Sex — the main tables are published separately for males and females.
• Discount rate — +0.5% in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland at present. The Tables print columns from −2% to +3%; the schedule should say which rate it uses.
• Life expectancy — the Tables assume the population mortality underlying the 2018-based projections. Where the evidence is that the claimant's expectancy is reduced, the multiplier for a loss for life is taken instead from Table 36 for the agreed number of remaining years.

Loss for life — care, case management, therapies, equipment

Tables 1 and 2 give the multiplier for a loss running from the pleaded date for the rest of the claimant's life, allowing for mortality. With an agreed reduced expectancy of, say, 30 years, Table 36 at 30 years is used instead, since the mortality allowance in Tables 1 and 2 would double-count the reduction.

Care in a serious injury claim is rarely one figure for life. It usually steps — a lower package while a parent provides care, a commercial package later, a higher one in old age. Each step is a period between two ages, and the periods are valued with the Additional Tables: the multiplier from the claimant's age at trial to the end age, less the multiplier to the start age. The GAD publishes the Additional Tables at 0% and +0.5%; at other rates the explanatory notes' apportionment method is used, applying the ratio of Table 36 multipliers to the Table 1 or 2 figure.

Loss of earnings

Tables 3 to 18 give multipliers for a loss of earnings to pension ages 50, 55, 60, 65, 68, 70, 75 and 80. For a retirement age between those — 67, for instance — the Additional Tables give the figure directly at 0% and +0.5%; otherwise the explanatory notes describe interpolating by age-shift between the two nearest tables.

The tabulated figure allows only for mortality. The chance that the claimant would in any event have had periods out of work is allowed for by the Tables A to D reduction factors, selected by sex, age band, employment status at trial, disability status and highest educational attainment (Level 1, 2 or 3 as defined in the notes). A male of 35 who was employed and not disabled with Level 2 qualifications, for instance, has his earnings multiplier reduced by the Table A factor 0.86. The factors run to age 54 only; above that the notes say the position is too individual for a table and the practitioner must make their own assessment. Where the evidence justifies it, a different factor can be argued for, and the schedule should say why.

Where the claimant was not yet in work — a child, a student — the loss starts at a future age. The multiplier for the working period is derived from the Tables and then discounted back to the pleaded date with the Table 35 deferment factor for the gap, or taken directly from the Additional Tables as a from-age to-age figure.

In a "but for" calculation the same tables value what the claimant would have earned and what they can still earn; the loss is the difference, each side with its own reduction factor.

Loss of pension

Tables 19 to 34 give multipliers for a pension loss commencing at ages 50 to 80 and running for life. They pair with the earnings tables: an earnings loss to 68 from Table 11 or 12 is followed by a pension loss from 68 in Table 27 or 28. The same reduction factor applied to earnings is usually applied to the pension loss that flows from them.

Fixed terms — Tables 35 and 36

A loss that runs for a known number of years regardless of survival — a lease, a university course, a fixed care regime while a child — uses Table 36, the multiplier for a term certain. A one-off cost incurred at a known future date — an operation in ten years, a house move at 18 — is discounted with the Table 35 factor for that number of years. Neither table includes mortality; the notes caution that for long periods a Table 36 figure overstates the loss and the mortality-adjusted tables should be preferred.

Repeat purchases — wheelchairs, vehicles, beds, hoists

Equipment replaced every few years is valued by summing the Table 35 factors for each replacement date: for a replacement every f years over n years, the factor for f years, plus the factor for 2f, plus the factor for 3f, and so on while the date falls within n. Where the item must also be bought at the outset, 1 is added. The practitioners' reference works tabulate these as "Table A5"; they are a formula at the chosen discount rate rather than a lookup, and for a loss for life n is the life expectancy.

Showing the workings

A counter-schedule will check every multiplier against the printed Tables, so the appendix should give, for each figure, the table it came from, the rate, the age or term used and the two printed values it was interpolated between. The calculator prints exactly that beside each result.

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