Court-awarded damages for people whose spouses die could be up to £300,000 too low, a report claimed today.

Researchers found the financial impact on a bereaved person’s life could reach £312,000, but courts can award a maximum of £10,000 to the wife or husband of a person killed due to someone else’s negligence.

The study’s author, Professor Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick, said: “Sadly, there can come a time of loss when a value has to ascertained, but judges who set damages are left to use crude rules of thumb, and financial settlements can, in practice, be amazingly small. Our new methods can change that.”

Professor Oswald, who worked with researchers at the University of London’s Institute of Education, applied the latest statistical tools in “happiness research” to test court awards.

The researchers calculated financial averages for different types of bereavements that they claim are “rooted in the real loss felt rather than the ad hoc approach produced by the courts”. For example, the financial impact of loss of a child was put at £126,000, loss of a mother £22,000 and loss of a father £21,000.

Mourning a friend was rated at £8,000, while loss of a sibling was estimated at only £1,000.

Earlier this month, the Government published proposals to reform the payouts that included a plan to allow children to claim damages for the first time when a parent dies in an accident.

However, the Government said it was not in favour of extending the payments tobrother and sisters, or to engaged couples.

The current bereavement damages award of £10,000 - designed to be a token payment in acknowledgement of grief - should remain for the deceased person’s spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, and to parents of an unmarried child over 18, ministers suggested in the consultation paper.

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