Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Asbestos Scandal

Further to this post the Independent continues its campaigning journalism in support of victims of the asbestos industry.

Insurance companies were yesterday accused of profiteering from victims of the deadly asbestos cancer mesothelioma. Hundreds of victims of the disease are going without compensation because many of the insurance policies meant to protect workers allegedly have been lost. A scheme to track down insurance details of defunct companies, run by the industry itself, is failing to find almost half of the policies which would cover victims' compensation. Untraced mesothelioma cases save the insurance industry an estimated £60m a year, leaving sufferers and their families to struggle on government benefits that are a tenth of what they would be paid in a claim.

"It's an astronomical windfall for the insurance industry," said Ian McFall, head of asbestos policy at Thompsons Solicitors. "At best, they are culpable of mismanaging their policy record archives and at worst they're guilty of profiting from incompetence."

"The insurers save millions of pounds by not finding these records," said Kevin Johnson, solicitor at the asbestos specialists John Pickering and Partners. "They profit from the failure of the tracing scheme, so why would it be in their interests to commit resources to it? The ABI tracing scheme has failed. You've got insurers policing themselves and the whole thing is fundamentally flawed."

Tony Whitston of the Asbestos Victims Support Group said: "...Robbed of their lives through no fault of their own, insult is heaped on injury as they fall back on taxpayer-funded, nominal, government compensation while insurers walk away from their liabilities with their back pockets stuffed with cash. This is utterly shameful."

The Government admitted yesterday that the voluntary scheme, which is overseen by the Association of British Insurers was "not delivering" and that the figures were not acceptable. The failure to find 48 per cent of policies for mesothelioma sufferers has been described as "utterly shameful", particularly as many of the "lost policies" date from after 1972 when it was compulsory to have employer insurance.The Government said the scheme had been such a failure that it was now considering the establishment of a "more formal" tracing office.

1 comment:

aberfoyle said...

Shonky deals with the exploytive employer class and one of the capitalsit classes bastions of usery and greed, the insurance industry.If you add the banks you have the trifecta.

Those workers should have been given a copy of their insurance policies,rather than a certificate hanging on the shop floor.Undoubtably there would have been a get out clause for the insurance company about (payment of injury cover only whilst working in the industry),as asbestosis is a creeping cancer only evident after decades of exposure.

What should be done and in all probability will not,is a independant committee of concerned parties consisting of Government,Health,Insurance and those effected workers with their Union, or specified representatives.With a unbaised arbitrator(if such a animal exists).And those unforunate workers suffering from this cancer, should be present and given oppertunity to express the effects that asbestosis has had on them and the stress on their families and loved ones.And shame the crooks into accepting reponsibility for the effects of their greed and corrupt coverup and unwillingness to front up to the legitamate claims of those effected workers.