But the cap is believed to have hampered the ability of those injured by malpractice to find a lawyer to take their cases due to low payouts.

If you can't afford to pay higher premiums, Mr Cox said the next best option was accepting a lower payout.

Thus, members with lower RA balances will receive correspondingly lower monthly payouts.

Certain ones, though, guarantee to pay for a minimum period of time, in exchange for a lower payout.

Before 2000 the claims were uncommon, with relatively low payouts.

The low payout versus the premiums coming in gives Hagerty a higher rate of return than other areas of the insurance industry.

The lowest average payout was at the National Portrait Gallery, which made only one person redundant, paying him or her £9,369.

Thus insurers with high payouts will receive more from the regulator than those with low payouts.

Most players could expect to receive at least one low payout if they played for long enough.

The lowest payouts in 2007 were $20,320 (just over double the buyin), as compared to $14,597 in 2006.