Ministers and officials in the Department for Work and Pensions have met and received representations on numerous occasions in the last five years from a wide range of stakeholders on insurance and liability arrangements with regard to asbestos-related deaths and ill health due to industrial activity.
Among the changes made as a result of these representations the Government provided more information and guidance to claimants and practitioners. More precisely, we published improved guidance on mesothelioma explaining the help available and where to find it, we provided best practice advice to industrial injuries disablement benefits claims handlers and we undertook public awareness activity to encourage claimants to use qualified, experienced legal practitioners when making a claim.
We also introduced standardised approaches to claiming civil damages by introducing a Standard Claim Letter. To facilitate the speeding up of payment of claims to people with mesothelioma, changes were introduced in the Compensation Act 2006 to enable defendant employers/insurers to claim money back from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
We have worked extensively with partners. We have conducted annual reviews of the Code of Practice for tracing Employers’ Liability Insurance policies to ensure the Code is comprehensive and has user confidence. HM Revenue and Customs now trace employer records for people with mesothelioma within 10 working days (previously 25-30 days). The Association of British Insurers (ABI ) has issued a claims handling best practice guide within the industry, and has introduced a Code of Practice phone enquiries helpline and issued guidance on getting the best out of the Code. Working with the Department for Business, we have now removed the need to resurrect insolvent companies in order to access ELCI policies, and working with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, we have helped make it easier for them to compensate people with mesothelioma more quickly.
We have introduced a new scheme for making payments to people with diffuse mesothelioma. The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008 introduced a lump-sum payment scheme for people with diffuse mesothelioma who can receive a payment of an average of £10,000 within 6 weeks of claiming (the payment is recovered if any subsequent civil damages are awarded). The scheme started on 1 October 2008.
We have reduced the compliance costs of regulations relating to the display of Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance certificates. The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (which came into force on 1 October 2008) allowed companies to display certificates electronically when employees have reasonable access to the certificate in that form, and removed the requirement for employers to retain certificates for 40 years.
We have asked questions about the possible reform of the current Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) scheme in the consultation document, “No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility”. The consultation asks questions on IIDB: How might we reform Bereavement Benefit and IIDB to provide better support to help people adjust to their new circumstances while maintaining the work focus of the modern welfare state? Are lump sum payments a good way of meeting people’s needs? Do they give people more choice and control? Could we make more use of them? The consultation ends on 22 October 2008.
We continue to have discussions with insurers, employers, trades unions, lawyers and other interested parties.