I had a no fault accident in my car in Dec 2002 (women pulled out from a junction into a busy mainroad and I T-boned her)
As a result of this I was off work with severe whiplash and a shoulder injury (caused by the seatbelt 
) for 4 weeks.
I was employed as a Mastertech for Toyota at the time.
I went back to work after the 4 weeks and countless trips to the docs only to be put on light duties because I could no longer lift heavy objects (a bit embarrasing having to ask an apprentice to lift a Landcruiser wheel off 
)
Fortunately for me I’d had my HGV medical about a month prior to the accident which was a God send as I was now finding it extremely difficult to do my job due to the pain I was in.
In March of 2003 I passed my Class 2 and then hung up my spanners, a job which I loved and had done for 13 years since I leaving school.
In fairness I’d looked into moving jobs but after my accident I had no choice but to give it up.
I was referred for physio,which helped a lot, BUT after more than a year of this I got referred to a specialist, had more physio and more Xrays and finally an MRI scan of my shoulder (which was still very painfull) revealed internal damage to the joint itself…
2 steroid injections later,no better,the insurance had now stopped paying for the private physio so back to the good old NHS which basically said ‘your shoulders screwed, its as good as its going to get’
5 years later after going to Crown court I was finally awarded nearly £10k.
Yes, the money was nice, paid for things around the house and bought us a new car, what it can’t bring back is the days before having to live on pills just to get through the day.
What really gets on my ■■■■ is like someone else said…all the people who just put in a claim to ‘make a bit of money out of it’
These are the people who are screwing it up for genuine cases like myself, who would rather just have my health (and my car) back in one piece.
If you’ve got a genuine injury then go for it and certainly DON’T accept the 1st offer, thats usually just a taster.
My Brother in law recently got paid out for whiplash (got hit up the arse by a 16 tonner 
) and I think he got in the region of £3k.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Roj