Taurus Capital is a niche finance house that has been providing financial solutions to the legal fraternity more than 5 years. As a trusted partner to over 200 personal injury attorneys and their clients, Taurus has been tracking various trends in the RAF environment. The analysis and commentary is based on a cross-sectional analysis of our Personal Injury client base.
The below table indicates the average payment term for court-orders / settlement-agreements paid in a period. Payment term is defined as days from court-order / settlement-agreement to date of payment to attorney.
ANALYSIS
- The Road Accident Fund continue to make progress in lowering the average payment times, with average term tracking 2.8% lower for the 2nd quarter 2021. We are also tracking 10.6% better than Q4 2020. However, the numbers continue to remain significantly above the 180-day benchmark, with much more work still required at RAF offices to continue getting closer to the target.
- A large reason why we are not seeing these number come down quicker is pending resolution of ‘duplicate payment’ firms, whose claims have been suspended until outstanding funds are repaid. We expect Q3 to show significant improvement as firms begin resolving these challenges with the RAF.
- The Covid-19 ‘3rd wave’ has started having a significant impact on road traffic, especially in Gauteng, as schools and businesses move online in response to climbing infection rates. This is expected to continue and move across to other provinces into Q3 2021. Reduced fuel expenditure by South Africans will undoubtedly impact RAF cashflows, worsening payment speed with claimants.
- The average claim term for Q2 2021 is 281 days. The variance shows that the minimum payment term was 52 days, and the maximum payment term was 689 days in this period. In line with the method in which the RAF are making payments – oldest claims paid first. We expect the variance in the payment term to come down over time.