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Interest on Damages Calculator

Led by Diellza Nika Hyseni and Mentor Nika · Updated 20 October 2026

Work out interest on damages before judgment in England and Wales: past losses at half or the full special account rate, general damages at 2% from service, debts at 8% or another rate, and interim payments, with every special account rate since 1993. From DMD Costs, law costs draftsmen in Westhoughton, Bolton.

  • Free, with no sign-up
  • Special account rate now 3.75%
  • Every rate since 1993
  • Nothing leaves your browser

Add each head of loss with its amount and date. The interest on each, the total and every period appear as you type.

The claim
Today by default: use the trial, judgment or settlement date. For a claim form, the date of issue or earlier.
Heads of loss

Head 1

Service of the claim form is the usual start (Jefford v Gee). The deemed service calculator finds the date.

Head 2

Usually the accident or the negligence. Half the special account rate runs from here to the end date.

Future losses carry no interest: leave them out (Jefford v Gee; Pawar v JSD Haulage [2016] EWCA Civ 551 [42]).

Interim payments

Interest on damages

Nothing yet

The interest builds here as you answer: each head with its rate and periods, the total and the daily rate.

Nothing you enter leaves your browser. Simple interest; days are the end date minus the start date, each year 365 days. It is a guide, not legal advice.

Damages settled, costs to recover? For claimant firms we draw the bill, answer Points of Dispute and negotiate the costs, interest included. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins.

Send us the file

The calculator applies section 35A of the Senior Courts Act 1981 and section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984, with the conventions the courts use, and the special account rates checked on 20 October 2026. It is a guide, not legal advice: the court decides the interest in each case.

Key points

  • DMD Costs’ interest on damages calculator is a free online tool that works out interest on damages before judgment in England and Wales, head by head, with the special account rate in force on every day since 1 February 1993.
  • It is completely free, with no sign-up, and runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to DMD Costs.
  • The special account rate is 3.75% a year, in force since 9 January 2026. The calculator applies each rate to its own period, as the court may (Senior Courts Act 1981 s.35A(6); County Courts Act 1984 s.69(5)).
  • In personal injury and clinical negligence claims, general damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity carry 2% a year from service of the claim form (Jefford v Gee; Birkett v Hayes; Wright v British Railways Board), past losses that run on to trial half the special account rate from the accident (Pawar v JSD Haulage Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 551 [41]), and future losses none.
  • A large loss on one date, or early on, can carry the full special account rate from that date (CCC v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2023] EWHC 1770 (KB) [168]; Smout v Wulfrun Hotels Ltd [2023] EWHC 1128 (KB) [44]), as do a bereavement award and funeral costs (Buckley v Yates Wine Lodges Ltd [2008] EWHC 1408 (QB) [30]); smaller items are often pooled at half the rate.
  • For a specified debt, 8% is the usual rate claimed and the most statutory interest a default judgment by request can include (CPR 12.7); the calculator gives the figures CPR 16.4(2) requires in the particulars of claim.

How to use the interest on damages calculator

  1. Choose the court and the end date. The County Court (s.69) or the High Court (s.35A), and the date to calculate to: the trial, judgment or settlement date, or for a claim form the date of issue.
  2. Add each head of loss. General damages, past losses running to the end date, a loss on one date, a loss that has stopped, or a debt, each with its amount and date.
  3. Choose the method where there is one. For a loss that stopped before the end date: the full rate from the midpoint, half then the full rate, or half throughout. For a debt: 8%, another rate or Bank Rate plus a margin.
  4. Add any interim payments. Each with the date paid, and whether interest on them is credited at the full or half special account rate.
  5. Read and copy the figures. The interest on each head, the total, the daily rate and every period, with wording for the particulars of claim on a debt.

The special account rate

The special account rate is the interest the Court Funds Office pays on special accounts, set by the Lord Chancellor with the concurrence of the Treasury. It is 3.75% a year from 9 January 2026. It usually moves a few weeks after a change in Bank Rate, though not always. The rates since 1 February 1993:

Every special account rate since 1 February 1993
In force fromRateHalf rate
9 January 20263.75%1.875%
20 August 20254%2%
30 May 20254.25%2.125%
3 March 20254.5%2.25%
6 December 20244.75%2.375%
19 September 20245%2.5%
12 June 20245.25%2.625%
23 August 20236%3%
13 June 20234.5%2.25%
21 April 20234.25%2.125%
13 February 20234%2%
16 January 20233.5%1.75%
18 November 20223%1.5%
25 October 20222.25%1.125%
2 September 20221.75%0.875%
5 July 20221.25%0.625%
29 April 20220.645%0.3225%
1 June 20200.1%0.05%
1 July 20090.5%0.25%
1 June 20091.5%0.75%
1 February 20093%1.5%
1 February 20026%3%
1 August 19997%3.5%
1 February 19938%4%

Sources: the Ministry of Justice notices on GOV.UK for the changes since 2020, and the annual Funds in Court in England and Wales Account for every year from 1998-99; the start of the 8% on 1 February 1993 is from the White Book table. Two dates are uncertain. The notice of 22 September 2022 confirms a 1.25% rate before 2 September 2022 but gives no start date; 5 July 2022 is the date in rate data that St John’s Chambers says the Court Funds Office supplied, while the 2022-23 accounts show 0.645% throughout. And the notice puts the rise to 4.25% on 21 April 2023, which the 2023-24 accounts date to 1 April. Checked on 20 October 2026.

Personal injury and clinical negligence

Where judgment is given for damages for personal injury or death over £200, it must include interest unless the court is satisfied there are special reasons to the contrary; the court still decides the rate, the part and the period (Senior Courts Act 1981 s.35A(1)–(2); County Courts Act 1984 s.69(1)–(2)). The courts use these conventions:

  • general damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity: 2% a year from service of the claim form;
  • past losses that run on to trial: half the special account rate on the total, from the accident;
  • a large loss on one date, or early on: often the full rate from that date, though smaller items are usually pooled at half the rate;
  • a loss that stopped before trial: three methods are in use, the full rate from the midpoint of the loss, half the rate while it ran and the full rate after, or half the rate throughout;
  • future losses: no interest;
  • interim payments: interest on them from the date paid is set off against the interest on the past losses.

Interest is worked out on the past losses before recoverable benefits are deducted. In long-tail claims, such as disease or noise-induced hearing loss, half the rate from the start of the exposure can overstate the interest where the losses came much later: date each loss instead (compare R (O’Brien) v Independent Assessor [2003] EWHC 855 (Admin)). These conventions come from personal injury cases; for other damages the court decides the rate.

Debts and other money claims

On a debt or other money claim the court awards simple interest at the rate it thinks fit. 8% is the rate usually claimed on a specified sum, and the most statutory interest a default judgment by request can include (CPR 12.7); the particulars of claim must give the rate, the dates, the interest to the date of issue or earlier and the daily rate (CPR 16.4(2)). At trial the court may award a different rate, often less: for a business, usually what it would have cost to borrow, often a margin over Bank Rate (Carrasco v Johnson [2018] EWCA Civ 87 [17]). The calculator does all three: 8%, another rate, or Bank Rate plus a margin, split at each change in Bank Rate.

How the calculator counts

Simple interest, head by head: the amount × the rate × the days ÷ 365, where the days are the end date minus the start date (the start date counts and the end date does not, as for money in court: Court Funds Rules 2011 r.13(2)), and a new rate applies from the day it took effect. Each head is rounded to the penny once, at the end; the daily rate is the interest for one more day at the rate in force on the end date. Interest on interim payments is credited only against the interest on past losses, never below nil.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Yes. It is completely free, with no sign-up, no paywall and no limit. It runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to DMD Costs. It is a guide, not legal advice.
The rate of interest the Court Funds Office pays on its special accounts, set by the Lord Chancellor with the concurrence of the Treasury. It has been 3.75% a year since 9 January 2026. It was formerly the short term investment account rate and then the special investment account rate, and the courts use it for interest on special damages in personal injury claims. The table on this page gives every rate since 1 February 1993.
Where the past losses run on from the accident to trial, such as lost earnings or care, at half the special account rate on the total from the date of the accident to the date of trial or judgment (Jefford v Gee [1970] 2 QB 130; Pawar v JSD Haulage Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 551 [41]). A loss incurred on one date, or early on, can carry the full rate from that date (Prokop v DHSS (CA, 1983); Smout v Wulfrun Hotels Ltd [2023] EWHC 1128 (KB) [44]). Each period takes the rate in force at the time, not today’s rate.
On damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity, 2% a year from the date the claim form was served to the date of trial (Jefford v Gee; Birkett v Hayes [1982] 1 WLR 816; Wright v British Railways Board [1983] 2 AC 773). The Court of Appeal declined to change the 2% in Lawrence v Chief Constable of Staffordshire (2000), and it is still applied: Pawar v JSD Haulage Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 551 [39]. Bad conduct by the defendant is not a reason to award more (Smout v Wulfrun Hotels Ltd [2023] EWHC 1128 (KB) [43]).
No. A claimant is not kept out of money for a loss still to come; if anything, it is received in advance (Jefford v Gee; Pawar v JSD Haulage Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 551 [42]). The same goes for future dependency in a fatal accident claim (A Train & Sons Ltd v Fletcher [2008] EWCA Civ 413).
The claimant was not kept out of money paid on account, so interest on each interim payment from the date it was paid is set off against the interest on the past losses. Courts differ on the rate: the same rate as the losses (CCC v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2023] EWHC 1770 (KB) [168]) or the full special account rate from payment (Lynch v Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust [2026] EWHC 657 (KB)), and some courts allow no interest on expenses paid straight out of interim payments (CCC [169]–[170]). The calculator lets you choose the rate and never lets the credit exceed the interest on the past losses; where interim payments exceed the past losses, a court may also reduce the interest on general damages.
Past dependency carries half the special account rate from the death, or from when the loss began, to trial; future dependency carries none (Cookson v Knowles [1979] AC 556, as applied in A Train & Sons Ltd v Fletcher [2008] EWCA Civ 413). The bereavement award and funeral costs carry the full rate (Buckley v Yates Wine Lodges Ltd [2008] EWHC 1408 (QB) [30]; for funeral costs from the date of death, Hayes v South East Coast Ambulance Service [2015] EWHC 18 (QB) [158]), usually from the date of death, and the estate’s general damages 2% from service.
Under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 or section 35A of the Senior Courts Act 1981, at the rate the court thinks fit. 8% is the rate usually claimed on a specified sum and the most statutory interest a default judgment by request can include (CPR 12.7). The particulars of claim must give the rate, the dates, the interest to the date of issue or earlier and the daily rate (CPR 16.4(2)). At trial the court may award a different rate, often less: for a business, usually what it would have cost to borrow over base, which can be higher for a small business (Carrasco v Johnson [2018] EWCA Civ 87 [17]). There is no s.69 or s.35A interest for any period in which contractual or Late Payment Act interest already runs.
Yes. Interest on special damages is calculated on the gross figure, before recoverable benefits are deducted (Wadey v Surrey County Council [2000] 1 WLR 820, HL). Enter the past losses before deducting recoverable benefits (lost earnings still net of tax and National Insurance).
Three reasons. The calculator counts the days as the end date minus the start date (the start date counts, the end date does not) and divides by 365 in every year; some calculators count both end days or divide by 366 in a leap year. It applies each special account rate to its own period. And on two uncertain dates it uses 1.25% from 5 July 2022 and 4.25% from 21 April 2023, as the table explains.

Damages settled, costs to recover?

We work for claimant solicitor firms: we draw the bill, answer Points of Dispute and negotiate the costs to settlement, interest included. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins.

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