Consultation launched on sick workers fund

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation on the establishment of an Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB) which would enable injured employees to obtain compensation where an employer’s insurer cannot be traced.

The DWP is looking to set up a system like the Motor Insurers’ Bureau where drivers can make a claim against uninsured drivers or drivers that they cannot trace. Currently, people who cannot trace employers’ insurers cannot obtain compensation for accidents or industrial disease. The system is envisaged to primarily benefit those suffering from asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, which develops over a number of years and where it is likely that employers have either ceased trading or where the employer’s insurance company cannot be traced.

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has said that it is important that the proposals were supported throughout Parliament. They said “injured and dying people have waited too long for this development for it to founder in the party political waters of the election… Cross party commitment to urgent action must be made so more people do not die uncompensated.”

As well as setting up the fund, the DWP intend to set up a register for compulsory employers’ insurance so that insurance policies could be traced more easily in the future.

The consultation is open until 10 May 2010. If you would like to learn more or respond to the consultation then please see the DWP website at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2010/accessing-compensation-elci.shtml