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Review all qualification criteria

Abolish minimum 14% disability qualification

Extend limit for industrial injury claims to ten years

The Hazards Campaign is concerned that the Welfare to Work proposals threaten people with work-related conditions by denying them the Incapacity Benefit and Industrial Injuries Disability Benefits to which they are entitled, and thus forcing them back into work when they are in fact disabled, or into poverty. The Hazards Campaign calls on the government to assess the impact of the Welfare to Work proposals, to ensure that people injured, made ill or disabled by work are not further disadvantaged.

The qualification criteria for DSS benefits for many industrial illnesses are inadequate and exclude many genuine sufferers of occupational disease, so a complete review is necessary. The application of the 14% disability qualification before benefits are paid, is unfair and excludes many people who are considered disabled and incapable of work by other agencies. Due to a lack of information from their employers and the health service, many sick people do not realise their illness was caused by work for years, so the limit for industrial injury claims should be extended to 10 years.

Modernise the prescribed list of illnesses

The existing list of prescribed occupational diseases is out of date and needs urgent review taking a wider range of information and evidence than narrow medical studies which underestimate, misdiagnose and fail to reveal industrial illnesses for years and years. The Hazards Campaign demands this review uses worker oriented evidence and wants the following added urgently - neurotoxicity due to organic solvent exposure, Chronic Toxic Encephalopathy, a much wider range of Work Related Upper Limb Disorders such as diffuse RSI , and stress related illnesses.

Abolish compensation clawback

Establish a systematic and just compensation scheme

Clawback of compensation is unjust and unfair and the Hazards Campaign calls for its abolition. A very small proportion of those injured or made ill by their work ever receive financial compensation for this from their employers because the process is weighted against them. The fair way to reclaim the cost of benefits paid to people disabled by work awaiting compensation decisions, is to claim it off the employer directly. The Hazards Campaign demands that the government establishes a fair system to enable those made ill or injured at work to gain the financial compensation to which they are entitled.