What Can Be Claimed from the Road Accident Fund?

A valid claim against the Road Accident Fund under the Road Accident Fund Act 56 of 1996 (as amended) can include five principal heads of loss: (1) general damages for pain and suffering, loss of amenities of life and disfigurement; (2) past loss of earnings; (3) future loss of earnings or earning capacity; (4) past and future medical expenses (including future medical aid contributions and the cost of future care); and (5) loss of support for dependants in a fatal claim, plus funeral expenses. The right to claim sits under sections 17 and 18 of the Act and is subject to a three-year prescription period from the date of the accident. The RAF Amendment Act 8 of 2018 further revamped the claims system and prescribed the use of the RAF 1, RAF 2, RAF 3 and RAF 4 claim forms to lodge matters.

The Legal Basis: What the RAF Act Actually Compensates

The right to claim against the Road Accident Fund is created by section 17 of the Road Accident Fund Act 56 of 1996, read with section 18, which sets the basis on which damages are assessed. Liability is statutory and not fault-based against the driver who caused the accident. The Fund steps into the shoes of the driver of the wrong vehicle (the “identified driver”) and pays the claimant under the Act’s tariff-based scheme, so the question is not the wrong driver’s ability to pay but whether the claimant suffered a compensable injury in a covered accident.

The Act was substantially amended by the RAF Amendment Act 8 of 2018, which introduced the new prescribed claim-form system (RAF 1, RAF 2, RAF 3 and RAF 4) and made certain adjustments to how general damages are assessed. Three building blocks make up a valid claim: a third-party motor vehicle accident, injury to a person (or death), and the existence of a compensable head of loss flowing from that injury.

The Claimable Heads of Loss — At a Glance

Head of Loss	What It Covers	Key Notes
General damages	Pain and suffering, loss of amenities of life, disfigurement, psychological injury	Quantified against the “general damages” tariff published under the Act; weighted by severity
Past loss of earnings	Income actually lost from the date of the accident to the date of settlement or trial	Supported by payslips, IRP5s, tax returns, or a self-employed income declaration
Future loss of earnings / earning capacity	The income the claimant is expected to lose going forward	Often the largest single head; usually requires an actuary’s report to quantify
Past medical expenses	Medical costs already incurred and reasonably paid	Must be reasonable and necessarily incurred in treating the injuries
Future medical expenses	Anticipated future medical costs, future medical aid contributions, future operations and the cost of future care	Often quantified by an industrial psychologist or occupational therapist working with a medical specialist
Loss of support (fatal claims)	What the dependants would have received from the deceased had they lived	Claimed by the deceased’s dependants in their own right under section 19 of the Act
Funeral expenses (fatal claims)	Reasonable costs of the burial	Recoverable in addition to loss of support

General Damages — The Act’s Tariff-Based Lump Sum

General damages cover non-economic loss: pain and suffering, loss of amenities of life, disfigurement and psychological scarring. Compensation is assessed against a published tariff of amounts for specified injuries (the Schedule to the Regulations under the Act), with increases built in for scarring and consequential injuries. The percentage of the tariff awarded depends on the severity and duration of the injury. A full shoulder-function loss, for example, attracts a higher award than a soft-tissue whiplash that resolves within months.

The “serious injury” threshold that previously restricted access to general damages under the old Regulations was set aside by Constitutional Court jurisprudence, so general damages remain claimable for any compensable injury, weighted by severity.

Past and Future Loss of Earnings

Past loss of earnings is the difference between what the claimant actually earned in the period before the accident and what they were able to earn (or did earn) in the same period after the accident. Future loss of earnings is the difference between the claimant’s likely post-accident and pre-accident career trajectories, discounted to present value. The two heads are quantified differently and usually attract different evidence:

• Employed claimants are supported by payslips, IRP5s and tax returns for the three years preceding the accident.
• Self-employed claimants are supported by management accounts, financial statements and prior-year tax returns; a forensic accountant’s report is often necessary to isolate drawings from business turnover.
• Informal-sector workers have no formal payslip trail, so the claim is built from comparable earnings evidence and prior earning patterns — this is the cohort where an attorney experienced in MVA claims is most useful.

An actuary is typically engaged to quantify the future-loss award from the medical specialist’s reports on the claimant’s career prognosis. For higher-value claims the actuarial model relies on contingencies for working life, career progression and post-accident employability, all of which are contested by the Fund.

Past and Future Medical Expenses

Past medical expenses are recovered at the reasonable and necessarily-incurred cost — emergency transport, hospital stays, surgery, physiotherapy, medication and assistive devices. Each line item must be supported by an invoice and a clinical indication that the treatment was caused by the accident and was reasonable in nature and quantum.

Future medical expenses include anticipated future medical procedures, ongoing medication, the cost of future medical aid contributions that the claimant would have paid but for the accident, and the cost of future care (including home-based care and residential care, depending on the injury). These heads often require a life-care planner or occupational therapist to map out the claimant’s future medical needs, and a treasury or cost accountant to value those needs at present value.

Loss of Support and Funeral Expenses in Fatal Claims

A fatal claim is brought by the dependants of the deceased in their own right under section 19 of the Act, not by the deceased’s estate. “Dependants” are defined by the Act and include the spouse, children and other persons who were in fact dependent on the deceased at the date of death. The head of loss is the value of the support the deceased would have provided to the dependants over the deceased’s expected working life, had they lived. Funeral expenses are recoverable in addition to loss of support — the claim is for the reasonable costs of burial.

What Cannot Be Claimed

The RAF scheme is narrower than a common-law damages claim. Matters that fall outside the recoverable heads include:

• Damage to the vehicle — RAF claims are for bodily injury, not property damage (property damage is dealt with through short-term insurance).
• Pure psychiatric injury that does not flow from a documented physical injury — although psychiatric sequelae of a documented physical injury are claimable.
• Pure economic loss not flowing from bodily injury is generally not claimable.

The claim is reduced by any contributory negligence of the claimant (for example, not wearing a seatbelt, or driving under the influence). The reduction is proportional to the degree of fault and is determined either by agreement with the Fund or by the trial court.

Filing the Claim — RAF 1, RAF 2, RAF 3 and RAF 4

The RAF Amendment Act 8 of 2018 introduced four prescribed forms used to lodge and progress a claim. Each form has its own purpose and is completed by a different party:

Form	Purpose	Completed By
RAF 1	The claimant’s main claim form, lodged with the Fund	Claimant (with attorney)
RAF 2	Medical report form	Treating medical practitioner
RAF 3	Police report form	South African Police Service
RAF 4	Confirmation of dependent form (fatal claims)	Dependants of the deceased

The forms must be lodged on the prescribed versions. Outdated versions are rejected and reset the timeline, which can carry prescription consequences if the rejection happens close to the three-year cut-off.

Prescription: How Long the Claimant Has to Sue

Prescription is one of the most common reasons an otherwise valid claim dies. The general prescription period is three years from the date of the accident. For latent injuries that were not immediately apparent, the period may run from the date on which the claimant first became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware, of the injury and its cause (the de die ad quem of knowledge). For minor children, prescription runs from the date the child turns 18. Once prescription has run, the claim is permanently extinguished — there is no automatic right to revive an expired claim, and condonation applications are brought on tightly limited grounds.

Why a Specialist Attorney Matters for an RAF Claim

The Fund is the named defendant and contests virtually every claim. Its defence patterns are well-known, and a generalist drafter can miss standard RAF objections — for example, challenges to the causal link between accident and injury, or to the reasonableness of past medical expenses. Future-loss quantification also requires an actuary, an industrial psychologist and a treating specialist; assembling this evidence chain correctly is what turns a low settlement into a fair one. The Fund’s first offers are typically undervalued and require active negotiation or trial to improve, and a specialist attorney builds the file so it can be set down for trial if settlement fails — the credible threat of trial is what moves the Fund from its first offer.

Burger Huyser Attorneys’ general litigation practice runs RAF files through Director Nadine Roesch-Prinsloo, who specialises in MVA claims and insurance repudiations, with the candidate-attorney and paralegal teams at the Linden head office coordinating the actuarial and documentary work that sits behind the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can be claimed from the Road Accident Fund?

Five principal heads of loss are claimable: general damages (pain and suffering, loss of amenities of life, disfigurement), past loss of earnings, future loss of earnings or earning capacity, past and future medical expenses, and (in fatal claims) loss of support for dependants plus funeral expenses. The right to claim sits under sections 17 and 18 of the Road Accident Fund Act 56 of 1996, and the claims are filed on the prescribed RAF 1, RAF 2, RAF 3 and RAF 4 forms introduced by the RAF Amendment Act 8 of 2018.

How long does an RAF claim take to settle?

Timeframes vary sharply with the severity of the injury and the willingness of the Fund to settle. A relatively straightforward soft-tissue claim with a clear settlement offer can resolve within nine to 18 months from lodgement of the RAF 1 form; a serious claim with future-loss actuarial evidence routinely runs three to five years and is often only resolved by trial. The Fund’s first offer is rarely a final offer, and the credible threat of trial is usually what moves the file to a fair settlement.

What is the time limit to claim from the RAF?

The general prescription period is three years from the date of the accident. For latent injuries not immediately apparent, the period may run from the date on which the claimant first knew, or ought reasonably to have known, of the injury and its cause. For minor children, prescription runs from the date the child turns 18. Once prescription has run, the claim is permanently extinguished.

Can I claim from the RAF if the accident was partly my fault?

Yes — but the award is reduced by the percentage of the claimant’s own fault. Common deductions are made for not wearing a seatbelt, for driving under the influence, and for jaywalking in pedestrian cases. The reduction is proportional to the degree of fault and is determined either by agreement with the Fund or by the trial court.

Can I claim from the RAF if the other driver was uninsured or fled the scene?

Yes — the identity of the other driver is what matters, not the roadworthiness of that driver’s insurance. The claim is lodged against the Fund (which steps into the shoes of the wrong driver), not against the wrong driver’s insurer. If the other driver is unknown (hit-and-run), special identification provisions apply and the identity requirement is relaxed.

Does the RAF pay for ongoing medical treatment?

It can — future medical expenses are a separate head of loss and are quantified by a treating specialist and a life-care planner or occupational therapist. The award is paid as a lump sum (not as ongoing medical aid), and the claimant is expected to use the lump sum to fund future treatment. The award should include future medical aid contributions, future operations, and the cost of future care (including home-based care where applicable).

If you are weighing an RAF claim, or have received an RAF settlement offer that doesn’t look right, Burger Huyser Attorneys’ general litigation practice handles the full arc of an MVA file — from the lodgement of the RAF 1 form through to trial — out of the firm’s Gauteng litigation practice. Initial consultations can be booked at the branch closest to you (Linden / Randburg head office 011 888 0246, Roodepoort 011 668 0030, Sandton 011 253 3080, Bedfordview 011 201 7190, Alberton 011 439 3990, Pretoria 012 471 5700, Centurion 012 644 4990, Midrand 010 022 4082). Bring your accident report, identity document, medical records from the date of the accident to date, and any correspondence you have already received from the Fund, and the firm will give you an honest read on what the file is worth and how long it is likely to take.