The amount of compensation for hearing damage, is obviously dependent on the degree of your disability and if your deafness affects your ability to work or to obtain work . Every different case is assessed individually with consideration attached to whether your noise induced hearing loss is partial or total, affecting one or both of your ears and whether you suffer from tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

Partial Hearing Loss compensation for occasional tinnitus with some hearing loss can be expected to start from £ 4, 800 to £ 30,000 with the Permanent Hearing Loss compensation levels increased for severe cases of tinnitus and hearing loss to around £19,000 to £30,000.

There are two elements to a compensation award for industrial deafness.

The amount of compensation you should receive, known as damages, is split into two separate categories called:

• General Damages.
• Special Damages.

General Damages – usually termed ‘pain, suffering and loss of amenity’ or ‘hedonic damages’, compensates the claimant for the non-monetary aspects of the specific harm suffered and can include an amount for your inability – either over a short period or for the remainder of your life – to do things that you used to be able to do before.

Areas covered include physical or emotional pain and suffering, loss of companionship, loss of consortium, disfigurement, loss of reputation, loss or impairment of mental or physical capacity, loss of enjoyment of life, etc. This is not easily quantifiable, and depends on the individual circumstances of the claimant being “assessed” for monetary value to be placed on pain and suffering experienced, possible future loss of earnings and how the injury may affect your general lifestyle in the future.

Special Damages – are all those which are easily quantifiable – loss of earnings, medical expenses, taxi fares, ruined clothes etc. It is important to keep receipts for any expenditure you have related to your condition, so that these can be reclaimed for any additional expenses that you incur in order that your hearing loss solicitor can claim them back on your behalf. The aim is to put you back to a financial position as if the occupational deafness had never occurred.