Insurance help for ill workers
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The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has unveiled plans to help people with serious industrial diseases track down their employers' insurance records with the launch of a new database.
The electronic database of employers' insurance policies will mean that fewer people who suffer with industrial disease will miss out on compensation. The Government department also announced plans for a bureau to provide funds.
DWP minister Lord McKenzie said: "We want to set up a better tracing service with a dedicated database to help them track down these policies, and a fund of last resort if all else fails."
It can be difficult for people to trace their employers' liability insurance policy and make a claim as some industrial diseases only become apparent decades later, by which time the employer may have ceased trading, not kept old insurance records or lost them.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The creation of an Employers Liability Insurance Bureau will be of real benefit for those who develop a disease as a result of exposure to asbestos.
"The Government proposals will ensure that, where an insurer cannot be traced, those who develop a disease will receive compensation in the same way that someone hit by a car will get compensation where the owner of the vehicle cannot be traced."