PAWE for Employees: The 52-Week Averaging Rule

Under Schedule 1 of the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017, the starting point for employees is the total gross earnings received in the 52 weeks before the accident, divided by 52.

If you were with your employer for less than 52 weeks, the average is taken over the actual period of your employment.

It is a common mistake for insurers to only look at your "base rate". Legally, PAWE must include:

• Your normal salary or wages.
• Overtime: All overtime worked in the relevant period.
• Allowances: Shift allowances, site allowances, and other regular payments.
• Bonuses & Commissions: Any performance-based payments received.

Fringe benefits and non-monetary perks are generally excluded from the PAWE calculation.

If you had gaps in your employment or periods of unpaid leave (e.g. for travel or health) during the 52 weeks, simply dividing by 52 may result in an artificially low PAWE. There are legal arguments to have these periods adjusted so that your weekly payments accurately reflect your "earning capacity".

Insurers often rely on a single employer summary or a limited set of payslips. If they miss one large bonus or a period of high overtime, your weekly payments could be underpaid for the entire life of your claim. Contact us to have your PAWE calculation audited by a specialist.

Standard-employee PAWE disputes often turn on detail rather than principle. The issue is usually not whether the legislation allows overtime, allowances, or bonuses to be counted. The real fight is proving what was regular, what was actually paid, and what period should be used.

• Complete payroll history: One full 52-week record is usually stronger than a handful of payslips chosen by the insurer or employer.
• Regular overtime pattern: Rosters, timesheets, and payroll codes can show that overtime was part of your normal earnings rather than a one-off spike.
• Allowance identification: Site, travel, meal, shift, and penalty components should be matched against payroll labels so they are not dismissed as unclear or discretionary.
• Leave-period explanation: Annual leave, unpaid leave, workers compensation leave, or parental leave can distort an average unless the insurer understands exactly what happened in those weeks.
• Multiple-source cross-checking: Payslips, bank statements, income statements, and employer letters should line up so the insurer has less room to understate the weekly rate.

Where the dispute is really about earnings evidence rather than work capacity, it often helps to keep the PAWE argument separate from any certificate or capacity issue and route the matter into the correct review pathway.

Some of the most avoidable employee PAWE problems are procedural rather than legal.

• Accepting a base-rate-only calculation: Many people assume the insurer is only allowed to count ordinary wages. That is often wrong.
• Sending incomplete payroll evidence: A partial record makes it easier for the insurer to say overtime or allowances were irregular.
• Mixing earnings and capacity submissions together: If the real dispute is the weekly rate, it helps to state that clearly instead of sending one broad complaint about everything going wrong with the claim.
• Ignoring a recent permanent change: If your hours, role, or rate changed shortly before the accident, you may need the recent-employment-change rules rather than a blunt 52-week average.
• Letting the review chronology drift: Decision letters, calculation sheets, and correction requests should be kept together so the internal review or PIC path is ready if needed.

The strongest employee PAWE files usually show the insurer exactly where the number is wrong, why it is wrong, and which documents fix it.

Before challenging an employee PAWE decision, it helps to build one review-ready bundle rather than sending documents piecemeal.

• The insurer decision and any calculation worksheet.
• A chronology showing the relevant earnings period and any leave or roster changes.
• Payslips, payroll summaries, bank statements, and income statements in date order.
• Any employer confirmation about hours, overtime patterns, allowances, or role changes.
• A short written schedule identifying each missing or wrongly excluded earnings component.

That structure makes it easier to move from insurer review into the correct PIC stream if the weekly rate is still understated.