Infected blood compensation calculator: scheme amounts and awards in 2026
Last updated · By Mustafa Bilgic · Amounts from the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025 as amended to 24 July 2026, checked against GOV.UK
This page lists every core award by infection and severity level, explains how the financial loss and care awards are worked out, and sets out the awards for family members and carers. The calculator estimates the core route award for an infected person, or for their estate, and the award for an affected family member or carer.
Core awards for an infected person
The injury award covers physical and mental injury and emotional distress. The social impact award covers stigma and social isolation. The autonomy award covers the impact on family and private life, such as lost chances to marry or have children. Each depends on the infection and its severity on the relevant date, which is the date of the application or, if the person has died, the date of death.
| Infection and severity | Injury | Social impact | Autonomy | Care (living) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hepatitis C, level 1 (acute, cleared) | £10,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | £500 |
| Hepatitis B or C, level 2 (chronic) | £60,000 | £50,000 | £40,000 | £54,600 |
| Hepatitis B or C, level 2B (chronic, treated with interferon) | £70,000 | £50,000 | £40,000 | £54,600 plus £17,568.54 a course |
| Hepatitis B or C, level 3 (cirrhosis) | £120,000 | £50,000 | £40,000 | £195,148.32 |
| Hepatitis B or C, level 4 (decompensated cirrhosis, liver cancer or transplant) | £180,000 | £50,000 | £50,000 | £446,751.74 |
| Hepatitis B, level 5 (death from acute liver failure) | £180,000 | £50,000 | £50,000 | estate only |
| HIV | £180,000 | £50,000 | £60,000 | £679,756.62 |
| Hepatitis B and C together, level 2 | £75,000 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £54,600 |
| Hepatitis B and C together, level 2B | £85,000 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £54,600 plus £17,568.54 a course |
| Hepatitis B and C together, level 3 | £150,000 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £195,148.32 |
| Hepatitis B and C together, level 4 | £225,000 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £446,751.74 |
| HIV with hepatitis C level 1 | £182,500 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £679,756.62 |
| HIV with hepatitis level 2 or 2B | £195,000 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £679,756.62 |
| HIV with hepatitis level 3 | £240,000 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £679,756.62 |
| HIV with hepatitis level 4, or hepatitis B level 5 | £270,000 | £70,000 | £70,000 | £679,756.62 |
Severity levels for hepatitis
- Level 1: an acute hepatitis C infection that cleared by itself.
- Level 2: a chronic hepatitis B or C infection.
- Level 2B: a level 2 infection where the person received interferon treatment. This level was added from 24 July 2026.
- Level 3: cirrhosis, single-round treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma caused by the infection, or type 2 or 3 cryoglobulinemia with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.
- Level 4: decompensated cirrhosis, multiple-round lymphoma treatment, a liver transplant or liver cancer caused by the infection.
- Level 5: hepatitis B only, where the person died from acute liver failure within 12 months of infection or reactivation.
Infected blood compensation calculator
Core route, as amended to 24 July 2026
How the financial loss award works
Every infected person gets a basic financial loss award of £12,500 (£17,500 for hepatitis B level 5) for costs such as travel to appointments and extra insurance. The additional financial loss award adds an amount for each year from the first year of infection (not earlier than 1952) to the year you reach your healthy life expectancy, or to the year of death for an estate. There is no additional award for a single infection of hepatitis C at level 1 or hepatitis B at level 5.
| Infection | Annual amount |
|---|---|
| HIV, years before the HIV diagnosis | £14,829 |
| HIV co-infected with hepatitis at level 1, 2 or 2B, years before the HIV diagnosis | £18,536 |
| HIV co-infected with hepatitis at level 3 or 4, years before the HIV diagnosis | £22,243 |
| HIV, from the year of diagnosis | £29,657 |
| Hepatitis, level 2 | £11,863, or £5,931 after the effective treatment year |
| Hepatitis, level 2B: the year a course of interferon began and the next year | £23,726 |
| Hepatitis, level 3 | £23,726, or £17,794 after the effective treatment year |
| Hepatitis, level 4 | £29,657 |
The effective treatment year is 2008 for hepatitis B alone and 2016 for hepatitis C. The lower rate after it applies only to people born after 1953 (hepatitis B) or after 1961 (hepatitis C). Where there is not enough evidence of how the disease progressed, the regulations assume level 3 for the 6 years up to the year of the application or death, and for level 4, 4 years at level 4 and the 6 years before that at level 3. Healthy life expectancy is worked out from the Government Actuary's Ogden Tables (8th edition, updated 2022); our default uses the same tables, explained on our personal injury discount rate and Ogden page.
The care award
A living person gets a fixed care award for their severity level, as in the table above. For level 2B it rises by £17,568.54 for each year in which a course of interferon began. For an estate, the care award is lower because past care is valued at 75% of the commercial rate: £40,950 for level 2, £146,361.24 for level 3, £335,063.81 for level 4 and £509,817.47 for HIV. If the person died before the end of the relevant period (10 years for level 2, 16 for level 3, 20 for level 4 and 24 for HIV), the award is built up year by year instead. The general rules on claiming for care and assistance in civil claims work differently.
If you receive support scheme payments
Infected people registered with an Infected Blood Support Scheme (IBSS) before 1 April 2025 can keep their support payments for life, uprated each year in line with the Consumer Price Index. They then receive the injury, social impact and autonomy awards with only the past part of the financial loss and care awards, and future losses are met by the support payments. If the future awards would have been worth more than the support payments expected over their lifetime, a top-up award makes up the difference. Support payments received before 1 April 2025 are not deducted.
Awards for family members and carers
Partners, parents, children, siblings and carers of an infected person can claim in their own right. Family members of someone whose only infection was acute hepatitis C are not eligible.
| Relationship | Injury, group A | Injury, group B | Social impact | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partner | £34,000 | £86,000 | £12,000 | £16,000 |
| Parent | £20,000 | £22,000 | £12,000 if the child was infected under 18, else £8,000 | £6,600 if the child was infected under 18 |
| Child | £20,000 | £40,400 | £12,000 if you were under 18 when the parent was infected, else £8,000 | £6,600 if you were under 18 |
| Sibling | £20,000 | £22,000 | £12,000 after 24 months living together while infected, else £8,000 | £0 |
| Carer | £20,000 | £22,000 | £8,000 | £0 |
The injury award has these uplifts:
- Partner: £43,000 in group B if the infected partner died before 14 April 2026 or you receive bereaved partner support payments; £17,000 in group A for bereaved partners receiving support payments.
- Child or sibling who was 17 or under in the first year of infection: £20,200 for a child and £11,000 for a sibling where the infection was in group B while you were under 18, or £10,000 in group A.
- Parent (group B): £43,400 if the child was 17 or under in the first year of infection, or £76,100 if the child died aged 17 or under before 14 April 2026.
A bereaved partner can also get a financial loss award of £16,682 a year from the year after the death to the year the infected person would have reached their healthy life expectancy, halved for years they would have been 66 or older, where no scheme payment was made to them before they died. A bereaved partner who keeps support scheme payments gets the past part instead: £16,682 a year up to 2024 plus a final year amount of £4,171. A child who was 17 or under at the death gets £5,561 a year until the year they turn 18. For a family member's wider claim after a death, see our guide to fatal accident compensation.
Interim payments, deadlines and tax
- Interim payments: living infected people registered with a support scheme received £100,000 from October 2022 and a further £210,000 after the Inquiry's final report in May 2024. Estates can get up to £310,000, and applications for estate interim payments close on 30 October 2026. Interim payments are deducted from the final award.
- Deadline: the scheme closes to applications on 31 March 2031.
- Payment: as a lump sum or in instalments over 5, 10 or 25 years, uplifted each year in line with CPI.
- Tax and benefits: compensation is exempt from income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax, and does not affect means-tested benefits.
- Supplementary route: extra awards for unethical research practices (£30,000 for adults and £45,000 for children treated for a bleeding disorder before 1986, or £60,000 for Treloar's College pupils from 1970 to 1983), severe health conditions and exceptional losses.
Sources and methodology
Each amount was read from the regulations on legislation.gov.uk (revised text as at 24 July 2026, with no outstanding changes) and checked against the 2026 amending instrument and the GOV.UK overviews. The calculator reproduces the core route figures in the GOV.UK case studies for Sandy, Elaine, Hayley, Alex, Ashwin, Paul, Max and Sally to the penny. Where a published case study differs from the wording of the regulations, the calculator follows the regulations.
- The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025, S.I. 2025/404, on legislation.gov.uk.
- The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/872, on legislation.gov.uk.
- Infected Blood Compensation Scheme overviews and case study calculations, on GOV.UK.
- Further interim payments guidance, on GOV.UK.
Frequently asked questions
How much is infected blood compensation?
It depends on the infection and its severity. The core awards for an infected person are an injury award of £10,000 to £270,000, a social impact award of £5,000 to £70,000, an autonomy award of £10,000 to £70,000, a care award and a financial loss award for each year of the compensation period. In the worked examples published on GOV.UK, the estate of a girl who died of HIV aged 10 receives £675,060.33, and a man living with HIV and hepatitis C receives £1,675,184.53 after £310,000 of interim payments are deducted.
Is there an official infected blood compensation calculator?
The IBCA works out each award itself. The GOV.UK case study calculations show step by step how awards are calculated, and the calculator on this page follows the same regulations and reproduces those case studies.
Are interim payments deducted from infected blood compensation?
Yes. Interim payments of £100,000 and £210,000 are compensation payments made in advance, and the regulations deduct them from the core award.
Is infected blood compensation taxable?
No. Compensation paid through the scheme is exempt from income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax, and it does not affect eligibility for means-tested benefits.
What is level 2B in the infected blood scheme?
Level 2B was added from 24 July 2026 for chronic hepatitis B or C treated with interferon. It raises the injury award to £70,000, pays £23,726 of financial loss for the year each interferon course began and the year after, and adds £17,568.54 to the care award for each year a course began.
When does the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme close?
The scheme closes to applications on 31 March 2031. Applications for the interim payments to estates close on 30 October 2026.