Collection

Compensation Recovery Unit

The Compensation Recovery Unit recovers social security benefits in certain compensation cases and NHS costs in certain injury cases.

Published 1 September 2013
Last updated 25 July 2019 — see all updates

• From: Department for Work and Pensions

The Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU), as part of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), works with insurance companies, solicitors and any DWP customers, to recover:

• amounts of social security benefits paid as a result of an accident, injury or disease, if a compensation payment has been made (the Compensation Recovery Scheme)
• costs incurred by NHS hospitals and Ambulance Trusts for treatment from injuries from road traffic accidents and personal injury claims (Recovery of NHS Charges)

On this page

Registering a compensation claim

Compensators who receive a claim for compensation must send form CRU1 to the CRU within 14 days to register the claim. Registering the claim does not mean that you have accepted liability for the accident, injury or disease.

Please include a National Insurance number on form CRU1 to help us:

• decide if there are any recoverable benefits
• deal with urgent certificate requests

Go to CRU forms.

Acknowledgement of your registration

We will send you an acknowledgement form when you register a claim. You will need to return this acknowledgement form to us when you apply for a certificate.

Transfer of responsibility

If you are a solicitor who has taken over responsibility for a case that has already been registered, please send us form CRU1 (Sol). If you subsequently return responsibility to the insurer, please send us form CRU1 (Rep).

CRU e-service

You can use the CRU e-service if your company cannot use any of the following services:

• CRIF (Cache PI)
• Experian (Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE))
• Insurance Services Office (ISO – Claims Outcome Adviser)
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Please do not use the CRU e-service if your company already has another electronic link with CRU.

Go to the Compensation Recovery Unit e-service.

How it works

Compensators and their representatives can use the CRU e-service to:

• request a certificate for a claim that has already been registered
• notify the result of a claim that has already been registered
• check a previous e-service transaction

We will issue a certificate by post to the address we hold for the compensator within 28 days of receiving the request.

Contact the CRU e-service

If you have any questions about the CRU e-service, email us at cru.udt@dwp.gsi.gov.uk.

How to make a CRU payment

You’ll be asked to make payments to the DWP CRU once the claim is settled.

DWP CRU bank account to be used for payments

Account name	Sort code	Account number
DWP CRU	60 70 80	10027432

Email addresses for remittances

Please provide the CRU reference when you email a remittance slip to the CRU to tell us a payment is being made. Or you can provide the CRU reference with the payment.

Email addresses to be used to send remittances to are:

• CRU.Banking@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
• CRU.Bankingreconciliation@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Contact CRU

We take calls from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Our phone number will be at the top of any letter we send you.

If you have a speech or hearing impairment our office has the Text Relay facility. The Text Relay number will be at the top of any letter we send you. The Text Relay number will be 18001 followed by the phone number.

Contacts for claims that have been registered

Subject	Phone	Fax	Email
Request certificate		0191 22 52359	cru.highvolumeareacertificates@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Notify settlement			cru.highvolumeareasettlements@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Personal injury claims	0800 15 13157	0191 22 52366	cru.assessmentsA-Z@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Disease claims	0800 15 13185	0191 22 52955	cru.specialistoperations@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Clinical negligence claims	0800 15 13159	0191 22 52645	cru.clinicalnegligence@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
NHS cases	0800 15 13189	0191 22 52309	cru.nhsops@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Reviews	0800 15 13192	0191 22 52343	cru.reviews@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Dispute resolution team and reviews	0800 15 13193	0191 22 52102	cru.appeals1@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
National recoupment team	0800 15 13186		recoupment.CRU@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Customer feedback team

Subject	Phone	Email
Feedback on guidance and legislation	0800 15 13196	CRU.CustomerFeedback@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Data protection and right of access requests

Phone	Fax	Email
0800 15 13195	0191 225 2150	cru.dataprotection@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Freedom of Information

If you have a request under the Freedom of Information Act that is specific to CRU, email cru.foi@dwp.gsi.gov.uk.

Our address

Debt Centre Washington
Compensation Recovery Unit
Post Handling Site B
Wolverhampton
WV99 2FR

Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme

See the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

Compensation Recovery in Northern Ireland

See the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.

Guidance and forms

Guidance and forms for compensators and their representatives.

1. Compensation Recovery Unit forms
   • 5 April 2019
   • Form
2. Recovery of benefits, lump sum payments and NHS charges: technical guidance
   • 28 May 2019
   • Guidance
3. 2008 Diffuse Mesothelioma Scheme: information for personal injury claims managers
   • 19 March 2019
   • Guidance

Bulletins

Information for CRU customers including compensators, their representatives and personal injury claims managers.

1. Compensation Recovery Unit bulletins
   • 5 April 2019
   • Guidance

Performance

CRU publishes data on its performance and on recoveries under the 2008 Diffuse Mesothelioma Scheme.

1. Compensation Recovery Unit customer satisfaction survey 2018
   • 25 July 2019
   • Research and analysis
2. Compensation Recovery Unit customer satisfaction survey 2017
   • 13 August 2018
   • Research and analysis
3. Compensation Recovery Unit customer satisfaction survey 2014
   • 18 June 2014
   • Research and analysis
4. Compensation Recovery Unit performance data
   • 10 May 2019
   • Transparency data
5. Recovery data for the 2008 Diffuse Mesothelioma Scheme
   • 23 August 2019
   • Transparency data
6. Compensation Recovery Unit customer satisfaction survey 2011
   • 1 September 2011
   • Research and analysis

If you've claimed compensation

These guides are for people who have claimed compensation.

1. Compensation, social security benefits and lump sum payments
   • 22 September 2014
   • Guidance
2. Compensation and repaying DWP: if you think our decision is wrong
   • 30 October 2013
   • Guidance

Published 1 September 2013
Last updated 25 July 2019 + show all updates

1. 25 July 2019 Added the Compensation Recovery Unit customer satisfaction survey 2018.
2. 3 February 2019 Revised contact CRU phone numbers for: contacts for claims that have been registered, customer feedback team and right of access requests. Changed made to CRU address, too.
3. 28 December 2018 Removed Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) Customer Service Managers contact information due to restructuring to our debt centre. New contact information will be added at a later date.
4. 13 November 2018 Updated CRU contacts for Customer service managers for disease, assessments customer service managers and Universal Credit.
5. 13 August 2018 Compensation Recovery Unit customer satisfaction survey 2018 added to the collection.
6. 23 July 2018 Revised Contact CRU, Customer service managers by removing 'Compensation and personal injury cases' section and adding contact to 'Assessments customer service manager' list.
7. 16 July 2018 Updated customer service manager information.
8. 5 July 2018 Compensation Recovery Unit have been having problems with electronic files since Monday, 1 July 2018. We are working to fix the problem and will let you know when we have. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
9. 6 March 2018 Changed fax number for CRU Clinical negligence claims to 0191 225 2645.
10. 11 January 2018 Revised CRU contact information for Customer Service Managers (Disease, Universal Credit and Customer feedback team manager).
11. 28 April 2017 Revised CRU contact information for 'Dispute resolution team and reviews'.
12. 7 April 2017 Revised CRU contact information for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.
13. 6 February 2017 Changed 'DWP CRU bank account to be used for payments' details.
14. 2 February 2017 Updated Customer Service Manager for diseases and added contact for Universal Credit.
15. 24 January 2017 Revised Data Protection phone number to: 0191 225 2547.
16. 11 January 2017 Added new CRU email address for Clinical Negligence.
17. 7 December 2016 Added a note stating the CRU e-service will be unavailable from 8pm on Friday 9 December to 3:05am on Saturday 10 December.
18. 23 November 2016 Updated Customer Service Manager (compensation and personal injury cases and customer feedback team manager) and data protection contact details.
19. 13 October 2016 Added new CRU email address for Freedom of Information requests.
20. 9 August 2016 Changed 'Data protection and Freedom of Information' phone number to: 0191 224 7819.
21. 22 March 2016 CRU customer feedback team telephone number changed to: 019 225 2347.
22. 17 February 2016 Updated Contact CRU 'Customer Service Managers' - NHS and Clinical Negligence and Disease.
23. 16 February 2016 Updated 'Contacts for claims that have been registered' - NHS cases and 'Customer Service Manager' - NHS cases.
24. 19 January 2016 Added new CRU postal address.
25. 12 October 2015 Changes to Customer Service Managers.
26. 8 June 2015 Added section: How to make a CRU payment.
27. 16 December 2014 Added contact email address for notifying CRU settlements.
28. 18 June 2014 Published a report of findings from the 2014 customer satisfaction survey.
29. 1 September 2013 First published.