The Covid impact on one of the country’s biggest claims firms has been set out in stark detail, with underlying profit and revenue plunging in 2020.

Final results for National Accident Helpline, covering the full year to 31 December, reveal that revenue decreased by 20.3% to £40.9m, with underlying operating profit falling 45% to £5.7m.

Overall, the company reported pre-tax losses of £200,000 for the year, down from the previous year’s losses of £2.3m.

The company said it is well placed to benefit from the personal injury reforms coming into force next year and will return to pre-pandemic performance during 2022. But ‘in light of ongoing consolidation in the market for residential property services’, it will investigate a potential sale of its conveyancing business.

The company has also decided it would not be appropriate to reinstate dividends and no payouts will be made to shareholders for 2020.

NAHL chair Tim Aspinall said: ‘We continued to make good progress both with our operational and strategic initiatives and our personal injury business completed its transformation into a modern, technologically enabled law firm capable of processing its own enquiries, ahead of the introduction of the legal reforms.

‘We are confident that these changes will result in a sustainable and profitable business, albeit with a longer profit and cash cycle. We are optimistic about the future and, notwithstanding any further setbacks with COVID-19, we expect to see profits in 2021 exceed those in 2020.’

The company, which has previously relied on income from law firms paying to be on its panel, has changed approach in the past year to provide more legal services of its own. The strategy is now to process all RTA claims in National Accident Law from June, and to handle an increasing volume of other personal injury claims in-house.

NAHL reported a 27% reduction in consumer accidents in the year. During the first lockdown, the group furloughed 82 staff (30% of the total), which had reduced to two by the end of the year. In total, it expects to have claimed £400,000 under the coronavirus job retention scheme. 

NAHL shares rose 4.6% to 45.97p on the announcement.